Legal English

FREE INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF MOLDOVA
INSTITUTE OF LINGUISTIC AND INTERCULTURAL STUDIES

CHAIR OF APPLIED FOREIGN LANGUAGES
A Guide to Legal English

Natalia URSUL, Olga DIMO
Chişinău - 2010
2
FREE INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF MOLDOVA
INSTITUTE OF LINGUISTIC AND INTERCULTURAL STUDIES
CHAIR OF APPLIED FOREIGN LANGUAGES
Natalia URSUL, Olga DIMO
Chişinău - 2010
3
The Guide has been written for everyone working or training to work in the legal profession. It
provides basic knowledge of legal words and terms. The various exercises throughout the
Guide focus on the key legal vocabulary that must be known by law learners.
Recomandat pentru publicare de către Senatul ULIM

(proces verbal nr. din 2010)
Descrierea CIP a Camerei Naţionale a Cărţii

Ursul, Natalia
4
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Instead of an Introduction………………………………………………………...
1. The Law……………………………………………………..…….………
2. Sources of Law……………………………………………………………
3. Courts in England and Wales…………………………..…………………
4. Overview of the Legal Professions……….………………………………
5. Judges in the United Kingdom……………………………………………
6. Truth As the Fundamental Principle of the Judicial Pleading……………
7. Branches of Law……………………………………………….…………
8. Kinds of Law: Criminal and Civil………………………………………...
9. Family Law…………………………………………………………….…
10. Commercial Law…………………………………………………………
11. International Law…………………………………………………………
Supplementary
Readings……………………………………………………………………………..
Bibliography
INSTEAD OF AN INTRODUCTION
Language is the only instrument of science, and words are but the signs of ideas.
~ Samuel Johnson
Legal English is the style of English used by lawyers and other legal professionals in the
course of their work.
Legal English has traditionally been the preserve of lawyers from English-speaking
countries (such as the USA, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand) which have shared
common law traditions. However, due to the spread of English as the predominant language of
international business, as well as its role as a legal language within the European Union, legal
English is now a global phenomenon.
Modern legal English is based on Standard English. However, it contains a number of
unusual features.
The English language can be said to have begun around 450 A.D., when boatloads of
Angles, Jutes, Saxons and Frisians arrived from the Continent. These Germanic invaders spoke
closely related languages, which came to form what we call Anglo-Saxon or Old English.
Although the Anglo-Saxons seem to have had no distinct legal profession, they developed a
type of legal language, remnants of which have survived until today. Examples include words
like goods, guilt, manslaughter, murder, oath, right, sheriff, steal, swear, theft, thief, and
witness.
The Anglo-Saxons used not only Old English as a legal language, but also Latin.
Although Latin was introduced to England during the Roman occupation around the time of
Christ, it became a major force only after the arrival of Christian missionaries in 597. Latin
was important for English law mainly as the language of court records. English lawyers and
judges liked to express sayings or maxims about the law in Latin. An example that has
survived is caveat emptor, dura lex sed lex, etc.
Following the Norman conquest in 1066 the official legal language was French. By 1310
almost all acts of Parliament were in the French language. A similar evolution took place with
the idiom of the courts.
A vast amount of legal vocabulary is French in origin, including such basic words as
appeal, attorney, court, defendant, evidence, judge, jury, justice, party, plaintiff, verdict and
voir dire. The French language of lawyers became increasingly corrupt. The language of that
time is often called “dog Latin” meaning a corrupted form of Latin, which consisted of a
mixture of Latin, French and English words used in English sentence structures. It also
contained many words which had nothing to do with Latin, but were framed from the English
by merely adding a Latin termination, as merdrum for murder.
In 1730, Parliament abolished Law Latin and French in legal proceedings, but many Latin
and French phrases had already entered common use in legal language, and have survived to
this day.
7
1. Here are some Latin words and expressions used in the legal profession. How many of
the meanings on the left can you match with the expressions on the right?
1. ab initio a. in fact (taken as a matter of fact, even though the legal status
2. actus reus may not be certain)
3. consensus ad idem b. an act forbidden by criminal law
4. de facto c. abbreviation for “exempli gratia” meaning “for example”
5. de novo d. a real agreement to a contract by both parties
e. from the beginning
6. inter alia
f. way/method of performance
7. pro rata g. among/ in addition to other things
8. modus operandi h. in proportion
9. et seq. i. abbreviation for “et sequentes” meaning “and what follows”
10. e.g. j. starting again
11. i.e. k. abbreviation for “id est” meaning “that is”
2. The words in this exercise are used a lot in the legal profession, and appear at various
stages throughout this course, so it is important you understand what they mean. Match the
definitions on the left with the words on the right.
Term Definition Translation

1. law a. someone who is accused of a crime in a criminal case
2. lawyer b. to ask a high court to change its decision or sentence
3. legal case c. to bring someone to court to answer a criminal charge
4. civil d. an adjective referring to crime
5. criminal e. an adjective referring to the rights and duties of private
persons or organizations
6. crime
f. a dispute between opposing parties, being resolved by
7. defence a court of law
8. defendant g. the arguments used when fighting a case
9. court h. body of enacted rules recognized by a community as
10. judge binding; one of these rules
11. contract i. an institution of dispute resolution
12. sentence j. an illegal activity which is punishable by law (e.g.
13. prosecute killing, robbery)
14. prosecutor k. to give a punishment to; an order given by a judge, a
15. appeal punishment for a criminal declared to be guilty in a
court of law
l. an official who presides over a court
m. a legal agreement between two or more parties
n. a person who prosecutes in a trial
o. a person who had studied law and can practise it
8
9
THE LAW
Dura lex sed lex.
Generally speaking, by law we understand any normative act issued by a legislative body
of a state, following a pre-established procedure. But, what we understand by law is only the
normative act passed in Parliament, following, of course, a pre-established procedure.
Legislative initiative in the Republic of Moldova lies with the members of Parliament,
the President of Moldova, the Government, and the People’s Assembly of the autonomous
territorial unit of Gagauzia. Legislation is passed by the Parliament in the form of
constitutional laws, organic laws and ordinary laws.
The constitutional laws are aimed at revising the Constitution, they establish the
organization of the political powers and the principles of government of the state, regulate the
rules, the fundamental civil liberties and some important social relations, which are the juridical
basis of the other laws.
The constitutional laws have to be adopted with a majority of at least two thirds from the
total number of the Parliament members and it is approved by referendum.
The constitution is the fundamental law of a state, consisting of a system of juridical
standards invested with a superior juridical force. The Constitution is the mirror of the
economic structures, forms of property and state organization.
The organic laws have the second juridical force after the Constitution and the
constitutional laws. The purpose of the organic laws is to direct and control the electoral
system, the organization of referendums, the organization of Parliament and Government and
of the local administration, the organization and functioning of political parties, the general
organization of the educational system, the granting of amnesty and pardon, etc. The organic
laws in the Republic of Moldova shall be passed by majority vote based on at least two ballots.
In the UK they are adopted with the absolute majority of the members of the two Houses of
Parliament.
The ordinary laws establish the most various social relations except for those which are
regulated by the constitutional and organic laws. In the Republic of Moldova they shall be
passed by the majority of the votes by the members present in session (in the UK they are
adopted by the absolute majority of the members who are present in each House of Parliament).
Problems of utmost gravity or urgency confronting the Moldovan society or State shall be
resolved by referendum. The decisions of the republican referendum have supreme judicial
power.
Laws have three major characteristics: they are general, compulsory and permanent. The
law is a conscious act of will, which is made to reach certain aims and to realise some social
ideals. It is general because it is valid for all the members of a society (an exception is
represented by the individual laws, which are adopted for certain specific acts). The law is
compulsory because its observance does not depend on the option of those asked to conform
themselves to its disposals. As a rule, the law is permanent; it is in operation until it is
abrogated. The only exception is represented by the temporary laws, which are in operation up
to a certain established date or an event foreseen by that law itself.
BASIC VOCABULARY
Law the combination of the rules and principles of conduct promulgated

by legislative authority, derived from court decisions and
established by an act of Parliament, local custom or practice
Legislative body official authorities who make or amend or abrogate laws
Parliament a national representative body having supreme legislative powers
within a state
Government body of people that sets and administers public policy, and exercises
executive, political, and sovereign power through customs,
institutions, and laws within a state
Autonomous - not controlled by others or by outside forces; independent;
- independent in mind or judgment; self-directed;
- independent of the laws of another state or government; self-
governing
Legislation - the act or process of making laws;
- a proposed or enacted law or group of laws
Constitution the system of fundamental laws and principles that prescribes the
nature, functions, and limits of a government or another institution
and according to which a state is governed
Referendum a vote in which the people in a particular country are all asked to say
whether they agree or disagree with a particular policy
Amnesty an act of forgiveness granted to a large group of individuals by a
government, especially for political offences
Pardon the release of a convicted person from punishment of an offence or
crime; exempt from penalty
Ballot the act, process, or method of voting, especially in secret
Utmost of the highest or greatest degree, amount, or intensity; most extreme
Will - the faculty of conscious and deliberate choice of action;
volition;
- a document in which you declare what you want to happen to
your money and property after you die
To abrogate to cancel or annul especially by authority (to abrogate a law or
custom)
1. Answer the following questions:

l. What do we understand by law?
2. Which are the three types of laws?
3. What are the constitutional laws?
4. What is the Constitution?
5. What are the main purposes of the organic laws?
5. Who votes the ordinary laws?
6. Talk about the characteristics of the law.
2. Join pairs of synonyms.
1. purpose a. binding
2. ordinary b. institution
3. state c. pardon
4. compulsory d. maximum
5. liberty e. common
6. to approve f. aim
7. conscious g. freedom
8. property h. to adopt
9. amnesty i. possession
10. ballot j. aware
11. utmost k. country
12. permanent l. vote
13. body m. constant
3. Fill in the blank spaces with the missing words:
a) A law is passed in Parliament following a .................... procedure.

b) There are three types of laws:.................... laws, ................... laws and ..............laws.
c) Constitution is the .................. law of a state, is the ................. of the organization of a state.
d) The ordinary laws are adopted with the ……………… majority of the members ……........
in each House of Parliament.
e) The law is the conscious act of ………………….
f) The law is valid for all the members of the ………………...
4 Consult your dictionary and find as many synonyms as possible for the following
words:
a state, legislative body, to adopt, purpose, to regulate, gravity, to abrogate
5. What are the differences between the following words?
law the law amnesty pardon
6. What do you call the laws which:
a) establish the organization of the political powers?

b) establish the referendum?
c) represent the development of the principles of the constitutional laws, but cannot confute
them?
7. How many word partnerships can you form by combining the two lists below?
To pass (a) sentence

To give over a veto
To pronounce (a) law
Actual pardon
Contrary to a mandate
To elaborate banknotes
To issue orders
To grant property
Absolute
8. Read an abstract from the Constitution of the Republic of Moldova and fill in the
gaps with the words in the box:
members, initiated, citizens, war, independence,

referendum, law projects, freedoms
TITLE VI - REVISING THE CONSTITUTION

Article 141. Initiatives for Constitutional Revision
(1) A revision of the Constitution may be _________ by:
a) a number of at least 200,000 voting _________ of the Republic of Moldova. The
citizens initiating a revision of the Constitution must cover with the number of their
listed residences at least a half of the nation's districts and municipalities, and in their
turn each of those districts and municipalities must be represented by at least 5,000
registered signers in support of said initiative;
b) no less than a third of the __________ of Parliament;
c) the President of the Republic of Moldova;
d) the Government.
(2) Constitutional _______ shall be submitted to Parliament on condition that the
Constitutional Court issues the appropriate recommendation supported by at least 4 judges.
Article 142. Limits of Revision
(1) The provisions regarding the sovereignty, ________________ and unity of the state, as well
as those regarding the permanent neutrality of the state may be revised only by ____________
based on a majority vote of registered voting citizens.
(2) No revision shall be allowed if it results in the suppression of the fundamental rights and
______________ of citizens, or of the guarantees of those rights and freedoms.
(3) The Constitution may not be revised under a state of national emergency, martial law or
__________.
9. Comment on the statements below:
 Laws haven’t changed since primeval times.

 However hard people try, laws are always insufficient.
 There is some eternal law. It is good for all times and places.
 The more laws, the less justice.
 The strictest law sometimes becomes the severest injustice.
 Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will
find a way around the laws.
 Nobody has a more sacred obligation to obey the law than those who make the law.
2. SOURCES OF LAW
A Constitution should be short and obscure.
~ Napoleon Bonaparte
Sources of law are the materials and processes out of which law is developed. In modern
nation states, the basic sources of law include a Constitution, statutes, case law, and
regulations issued by government agencies.
The main sources of law can be classified in the following way: theoretical
(philosophical), documentary, historical, formal and literary sources of law.
• The historical sources of law are the acts and events in past time, which have given
rise to particular principles and rules of law. In the United Kingdom and Continental European
legal systems, these include the Roman law, the canon law, the feudal customs, the law
merchant and the general maritime law of Western Europe. One of the basic historical sources
of law in the United Kingdom is the Magna Carta, it is a charter granted by the King John in
1215, recognizing the rights and privileges of the barons, church and freemen.
• The formal sources of law represent legal acts accepted by the official authourities.
These are declarations by Parliament in the form of legislation, statements of law by superior
courts, etc.
• The term “sources” is sometimes applied to those philosophical (theoretical)
principles which have influenced law, motivated legislation or prompted change. E.g., the
philosophy of Marxism-Leninism has been the source of whole legal systems.
• The term is used of the documentary sources refer to the documents containing the
athoritative statemennts of rules of law. In the United Kingdom, these are the volumes of states,
statutory instruments and of reports of case law.
• The literary sources of law represent legal literature, the books to which one turns
for information. These include encyclopedias, treaties, textbooks which are based on the
material sources but have no authority and validity as rules of law, and no judge is bound to
accept the rules stated there.
Notice that the continental countries have codified their laws (reduced them to statutes).
Statutes and constitutions are classified as “written or statutory law”. The English-speaking
countries are based on common or case (sometimes unwritten) law. The basic characteristic of
the common law is that a case once decided establishes a precedent that will be followed by
the courts when similar controversies are later presented.
BASIC VOCABULARY
Statute - an enactment of a legislative body expressed in a formal

document;
- a permanent rule made by a body or institution for the
government of its internal affairs
Canon law the law governing the affairs of a Christian Church, esp. the law
created or recognized by papal authority in the Roman Catholic
Church
Custom the long-established habits or traditions of a society; convention
Declaration - a formal statement or announcement; proclamation;
- the ruling of a judge or court on a question of law, esp in
the chancery division of the High Court
To prompt to give rise to by suggestion
To codify to organize or collect together (laws, rules, procedures, etc.) into
a system or code
Precedent a judicial decision that serves as an authority for deciding a later
case
Controversy dispute, argument, or debate, esp. one concerning a matter about
which there is strong disagreement and esp. one carried on in
public or in the press
1. What are the main sources of law?

2. What are the historical sources of law that have shaped the legal system of the UK?
3. What are the formal sources of law?
4. What is the name used for writings by jurists?
5. Are legal treaties and encyclopedias accepted as binding in courts of law?
6. What have the continental countries done with their laws?
7. Is case law written or unwritten?
8. What is the basic characteristic of the common law?
9. What is the main source of law in the Republic of Moldova?
2. Join pairs of synonyms:
1. basic a. common law 1

2. legal b. admiralty law 2
3. maritime law c. main 3
4. authorities d. legality 4
5. case law e. licit
5
6. validity f. written law
6
7. statutory law g. officials
7
3. Make sentences using the antonyms of the following words:
controversy common law modern

to give rise freeman
4. How many meanings can you find to these words?

 Custom
 Law
 Source
5. In the text, find English equivalents for the following:
organ guvernamental правительственный

(государственный) орган
drept canonic церковное (каноническое)
право
сarta (a drepturilor, etc.) хартия
a codifica кодифицировать
precedent judiciar юридический прецедент
cutumă общее право
legislaţie законодательство
6. Translate the following word combinations containing the word ‘source’ into
your mother tongue:
- confidential source
- illegitimate source
- legal source of crime
- legal source
- legitimate source
- original source
- source of increased danger
- source of law
- sources of evidence
7. Complete the following table with the corresponding verb(s), noun(s) or

adjective(s) where appropriate.
Noun Verb Adjective

Law -----
legal
To regulate
Code
Resolution
To approve
Provision
---- binding
Statute ---
authoritative
To declare
8. Solve the crossword to find the mystery phrase. The first word has been done for you.
1 l e g i s l a t i o n 1. The act or process of

2 m making laws.
3 t 2. Of or relating to the
4 p minority; below the age of
5 n legal majority.
3. An enactment of a
6 n
legislative body expressed in a
7 r
formal document.
8 u 4. Justice has __________, the
9 m guilty man has been punished.
1 (infinitive)
0 d 5. A judgment, conclusion, or
1 resolution reached or given;
1 t verdict.
1 6. This intervention in another
2 a nation’s affairs has set
a _____________ which we hope other countries will not follow.

7. A demand, condition (of a contract), or stipulation formally incorporated in a document.
8. The Moldovan Constitution is the main _________ of law in the Republic of Moldova
followed by codes and parliamentary statutes, and executive laws.
9. An improvement or change for the better, esp. as a result of correction of legal or political
abuses or malpractices.
10. ___________ legislation (also referred to as secondary legislation or subordinate
legislation) is law made by an executive authority under powers given to them by primary
legislation in order to implement and administer the requirements of that primary legislation.
11. Prescribed or authorized by statute.
12. Law established by following judicial decisions given in earlier cases (2 words).
9. Fill in the blanks with the appropriate words from the box:
written, important, from, laws, rules, documents, courts, to, embodied
The British Constitution is just as ___________ to the British as the US Constitution is to

the Americans. Nevertheless, it is not ____________; that is to say, it has never been wholly
reduced ________ writing. This does not mean, however, that the British possess no important
constitutional ___________. It merely means that the constitution is not ____________ in any
single document, or series of documents, containing their essential constitutional
_____________.
Many constitutional rules are ‘laws’ in the ordinary sense, so they will be recognized and
enforced by the ___________. But there are certain other ____________ which govern the
working of the constitution, which are not laws in this sense. They are called ‘conventions’,
because they arise _________ usage, or agreement.
3. COURTS IN ENGLAND AND WALES
There is no such thing as justice, in or out of court.
~ Clarence Darrow
The United Kingdom does not have a single unified judicial system - England and Wales
have one system, Scotland another, and Northern Ireland a third. However, all types of courts
in the United Kingdom are administered by Her Majesty's Courts Service, an executive agency
of the Ministry of Justice.
There are the following types of courts in England and Wales:
• The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom is the court of last resort in all matters under
English law, Welsh law, Northern Irish law and Scottish civil law. The Supreme Court
was established by Part 3 of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 and started work on 1
October 2009.
Until 2009 the House of Lords served as the court of last instance for most instances of
UK law. It was presided over by the Lord Chancellor and consisted of three to seven
Lords of Appeal in Ordinary (appointed as life peers) and peers who held high judicial
office.
• Court of Appeal (Criminal and Civil Division): hears appeals from the High Court and
the Crown Court.
• High Court of Justice: original and appellate jurisdiction in all civil and some criminal
cases. It has three subdivisions: Family Division, Chancery Division (administration of
estates and interpretation of wills) and the Queen’s Bench (all cases not dealt with by
the other two divisions).
• Crown Court: responsible for all criminal cases above the level of magistrates’ courts.
All trials are held with one judge (and maybe a jury).
• County Courts (300 in England and Wales): cover all types of civil suits including
complaints of race and sex discrimination. Trials are conducted by a professional circuit
judge and might be assisted by a jury.
• Magistrates’ Courts: consist of three unpaid lay magistrates (known as ’justices of the
peace’) who try minor offences without a jury. They have limited civil jurisdiction,
mainly in domestic matters. About 90% of criminal investigations begin here.
The legal system also includes juvenile courts (which deal with offenders under seventeen)
and coroners’ courts (which investigate violent, sudden or unnatural deaths). There are
administrative tribunals which make quick, cheap and fair decisions with much less formality.
Tribunals deal with professional standards, disputes between individuals, and disputes between
individuals and government departments (e.g., over taxation).
Nota bene: Scotland has its own legal system, which has more similarities with the law
system of Continental countries, civil law being based on the principles of Roman rather than
English Common Law.
BASIC VOCABULARY
Executive having the function or purpose of carrying plans, orders, laws, etc.,
into practical effect
Lord Chancellor the cabinet minister who is head of the judiciary in England and
Wales and Speaker of the House of Lords
Peer a person who holds any of the five grades of the British nobility:
duke, marquis, earl, viscount, and baron
Appeal - the judicial review by a superior court of the decision of a
lower tribunal;
- a request for such review ;
- the right to such review;
- to apply to a superior court to review (a case or particular
issue decided by a lower tribunal)
Estate - property or possessions;
- the total extent of the real and personal property of a deceased
person or bankrupt
Trial the judicial examination of the issues in a civil or criminal cause by
a competent tribunal and the determination of these issues in
accordance with the law of the land
Suit - a civil proceeding; lawsuit;

- the act or process of suing in a court of law
Complaint a statement by which a civil proceeding in a magistrates' court is
commenced
Lay magistrate a member of the public who voluntarily gives up his/her time to
preside over magistrates' courts. They need have no formal legal
qualifications, although they are trained in court procedures.
Minor offence petty or less serious act of breaking the law

Domestic of or involving the home or family
Tribunal - a court of justice or any place where justice is administered;
- (in Britain) a special court, convened by the government to
inquire into a specific matter;
- a raised platform containing the seat of a judge or magistrate,
originally that in a Roman basilica
1. What is the difference between criminal and civil law in the United Kingdom?
2. Who administers courts of law in the UK?
3. What types of courts exist in the UK?
4. What is the most common type of British courts?
5. What is the ‘supreme’ court in the UK?
6. Who are lay magistrates?
7. What type of courts deals with offenders under seventeen years old?
2. Pair work. Which of the courts do you think would deal with:
• a bank robbery?
• a divorce case?
• a burglary committed by a fifteen-year-old?
• a drowning?
• a case of driving too fast?
3. Find common collocations (sometimes more than one solution is possible):
to hear damages
to break a decision
to deliver a case 4. Find in the text the
to charge an opinion English equivalents for the words
to recover a witness below:
to cross-examine a verdict
to reverse the law
putere executivă орган исполнительной
to return a fee
власти
to cite the jury
lord cancelar лорд-канцлер
to instruct a case
sistem judecătoresc судебная система
Ministerul Justiţiei Министерство юстиции
curte de justiţie criminală Суд Короны
(în Anglia)
magistrat мировой судья
Camera Lorzilor Палата лордов
delict мелкое правонарушение,
деликт
curtea juvenilă суд по делам
несовершеннолетних
contravenient правонарушитель
moarte violentă насильственная смерть
proces penal уголовное дело
proces civil гражданское дело
a judeca un proces слушать дело
5. Analyze the court structures in the UK, USA and RM
a) The United Kingdom
This figure shows a top-down representation of how the court system is structured in the
United Kingdom. Test your knowledge of the system by rearranging the letters in bold to
make words.
1. Court of cuJsiet of the nEuaepor

umCosniimet
soHeu of
2.
rodsL
3. Court of pAlpe (amiCriln 4. Court of pAalpe (vCili

viiinosd) viiinosd)
5. wCnro Court 6. gHhi Court
7. gastaitresM' 8. tonCyu
Court Court
b) The United States of America

This figure shows a top-down representation of how the courts are structured in the USA.
Test your knowledge of the system by rearranging the letters in bold to make words.
1.
Supreme
Court
2. Courts of 3. Court of 4. Court of

Appeal pAplae
(12 (realdeF italyiMr
cuitCris) Circuit) spAplae
8. teInrnalation 7. Courts of
5. 94 stDtiric 9. sliCma 10. Court of
viRwee 6. xaT Court edraT
Vanstere' italyiMr
Court Court Courts
c) The Republic of Moldova
Constitutional Court
The Supreme Court of Justice

Adstraminveiti adn Cilvi Colgele oomnEcic Colgele
Criinaml leColge
iSx Crtous of Apapel
The Spializeecd
(nomEcoic)
Cinahisu aBtil enBrde huCal Cmaort ortusC of sticueJ
16 15 9 4 3
Courts of justice of the first level

4. OVERVIEW OF THE LEGAL PROFESSIONS
A good lawyer is a great liar.

~Jean Giradoux
The legal profession in the United Kingdom may be roughly classified in the following
way:
Solicitors
By the mid-1500s in England two types of lawyers had appeared:
solicitors and barristers. Solicitors make up the largest branch of the legal
profession in England and Wales. They are found in every town, where
they deal with all the day-to-day work of preparing legal documents for
buying and selling houses, making wills, etc. They are involved in
commercial work relating to business e.g. dealing with commercial
transactions, corporate matters, land, share and other property dealings. Solicitors also work
on court cases for their clients in magistrate’s and county courts, prepare cases for barristers to
present in the higher courts.
Most solicitors are graduates with a law degree. They must also undertake professional
training both by a one-year Legal Practice Course and then by two years under a training
contract with a solicitor in practice. The controlling body is the Law Society.
Barristers
The traditional work of barristers is advocacy - they present
cases in court, where their ability to speak and to think quickly "on
their feet" is important.
The barrister will be "briefed" (instructed) by a solicitor - it is the
The Bar Council regulates solicitor who first contacts the client and has initial conduct of the
the work of barristers case.
However, the barrister is to a fair extent independent of the
solicitor and can take an independent judgment as to how to conduct the
case. Barristers are occasionally advocates in magistrates’ courts (more commonly in London
than elsewhere), but they mainly work in the Crown Court (it is possible to have a solicitor
advocate but this is still rare), the High Court or in appeal courts.
Most barristers are law graduates and they undergo professional training through a Bar
Vocational Course and through a pupillage with a qualified barrister. The highest level of
barristers have the title QC (Queen’s Counsel) or "take silk". In court, barristers wear wigs
and gowns in keeping the extreme formality of the proceedings.
Judges
A judge, or arbiter of justice, is a lead official who presides over a court of law.
They are trained as barristers, as there is no separate training for judges. The judge hears all
the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the prosecution and the defence. If the
accused is convicted, then the judge pronounces the sentence. They also wear wigs and black
gowns. They are usually addressed as "My Lord" or "My Lady", "Your Honour", "Your
Worship".
Jury JUROR’S OATH
A jury consists of twelve people (‘jurors’), who are ordinary I do solemnly, sincerely and
people, chosen at random from the Electoral Register (the list of truly declare and affirm that
people who can vote in elections). The jury listens to the evidence I will faithfully try the
given in court in certain criminal cases and decides whether the defendant and give a true
defendant is guilty or innocent. If the person is found guilty, the verdict according to the
punishment is passed by the presiding judge. The jury is rarely evidence.
used in civil cases.
Magistrates
Magistrates (also known as Justices of the Peace or JPs) judge cases in the lower courts.
They are usually unpaid and have no formal legal qualifications, but they are respectable
people who are given some training.
Coroners
A coroner is a public official responsible for the investigation of violent, sudden, or
suspicious deaths and inquiries into treasure-trove. They have medical or legal training (or
both).
Clerks of the Court
Clerks look after administrative and legal matters in the courtroom.
BASIC VOCABULARY
Transaction - something that is transacted, esp. a business deal or

negotiation;
- the act of obtaining and paying for an item or service
Law Society (in England or Scotland) the professional body of solicitors,
established in 1825 and entrusted with the registration of solicitors
(requiring the passing of certain examinations) and the regulation
of professional conduct
Advocacy the act of pleading or arguing in favor of something, such as a
cause, idea, or policy; active support
To contact to get in touch with; communicate with
Bar Council in a Commonwealth country and in the Republic of Ireland, is a
professional body that regulates the profession of barristers
together with the Inns of Court.
Pupillage the period spent by a newly called barrister in the chambers of a
member of the bar
Proceedings - legal action; litigation. Often used in the plural;
- the instituting or conducting of legal action

Witness a person who has seen or can give first-hand evidence of some
event esp. in the court of law
Evidence matter produced before a court of law in an attempt to prove or
disprove a point in issue, such as the statements of witnesses,
documents, material objects, etc
Treasure-trove valuable articles, such as coins, bullion, etc., found hidden in the
earth or elsewhere and of unknown ownership. In 1996 treasure
was defined in the UK as any item over 300 years old and
containing more than 5% of precious metal
At random in a purposeless fashion; not following any prearranged order

1. What types of legal professions are mentioned in the text? 2. What are the two types of
lawyers in the United Kingdom? What is the difference between them? 3. Why barristers are
called ‘take silk’? 4. What is the judge’s role in a proceeding? 5. Is there a separate training
for judges? 6. Who are JPs? 7. What are coroners’ duties? 8. What are the main branches of
the legal profession in the Republic of Moldova?
2. Find synonyms in the text for the following words and expressions:
1. authority having the power to control something _____________________________
2. information proving something _____________________________
3. a member of a jury _____________________________
4. guiding, directing or influencing official _____________________________
5. to pronounce a sentence _____________________________
3. Choose the correct term for each legal profession mentioned in the text.
1. an officer acting as a judge in the lower courts;
2. a public official with authority to hear and decide cases in law court;
3. a group of people who swear to give a true decision on issues in a law court;
4. an official who investigates the cause of any death thought to be violent or unnatural;
5. a lawyer who has the right to speak and argue in higher law courts;
6. a lawyer who prepares legal documents, advises clients on legal matters and speaks for
them in lower law courts.
4. Complete the following sentences with the correct variant ( a, b or c).

1. Lawyers may exercise their profession (a) as lawyers, solicitors and barristers
(b) as solicitors and barristers
(c) as solicitors, barristers and judges
2. The controlling body for solicitors is (a) the Law Society
(b) the Inns of Court
(c) the Bar Council
3. In the case of solicitors the practical training takes the form of: (a) one-year training
(b) two-year training
(c) three-year training
4. All lawyers undergo an extensive period of education through: (a) practical training
(b) formal academic
learning (c) both
5. The barrister’s task is: (a) to present the case
(b) to express the arguments on the client’s behalf
(c) both
6. Solicitors (a) deal directly with the client
(b) ensure that the barrister chosen is properly and fully instructed
(c) both
7. Magistrates usually judge cases in (a) County courts
(b) lower courts
(c) Crown Court
8. Coroners inquire into (a) violent or natural deaths
(b) treasure-trove
(c) both
5. Study the following table and supply the missing information.
SOLICITOR BARRISTER JUDGE

Status and definition A legal practitioner in
of the profession the UK. Practising
solicitors must
possess certificate
issued annually by the
Law Society.
Solicitors form much
the larger part of the
English legal
profession.
Controlling body
Education and
training
Duties
6. Label the following as British English (BE) or American English (AE). Some could be
both British and American.
* lawyer _______________ * counselor _______________

* advocate _______________ * attorney _______________
* solicitor _______________ * barrister _______________
* counsel _______________ * writer _______________
7. Circle the words related to law to describe major areas of legal practice.
company relevant state corporate

market
target cooperative finance criminal
regulation labour common real contract
tax copyright development public
8. Underline the appropriate words or phrases to finish these sentences.
►Law forms/firms offer complete legal services for domestic and international
clientele/customers.
►Lawyers draw up/decide on documents such as contracts, deeds/drafts and

wills/warranties.
►They typically alternate/arbitrate problems and disputes between

players/parties.
►Lawyers can fold/file a case of wrong-doing where

someone wants to sue/to sew for a cash settlement.
►When a person doesn’t want to talk directly to the

other, attorneys often speak in spite of/on behalf of someone.
9. Look at the picture of an American court. Match the numbers in the picture with the words
below:
jury robe court officer witness prosecuting attorney

reporter gavel transcript bench defence attorney
court jury box defendant judge witness stand
THE FIRST WOMEN LAWYERS
amendments professions practised support equality

lawyers legal fight degree
Since olden times, __________ profession was considered to be a “gentlemen’s” one.

Women first began to enter the legal _____________in the late nineteenth century, at a time
when two reform movements were significant. One was the movement for women’s
_____________and the emergence of modern professions and of ideas about
“professionalism” in law.
The first women ____________ appeared in the United States a few years after the
Civil War. During the civil war many men left to __________, so universities admitted more
women students and teachers. Thus the first women lawyers appeared. They included
Arabella Mansfield, who became the first woman formally admitted to a state bar when she
gained admission in Iowa in 1869, and Ada Kepley, the first American woman to obtain a
university law __________ in 1870. Although admitted to the bar, they never actually
__________ law, instead focusing on teaching and other activist work.
A few years later, however, the Illinois legislature enacted amending legislation to permit
women’s admission to the bar, and a number of other American states enacted similar
______________. Thus, by the late 1880s there was a sufficient number of American women
lawyers to establish the Equity Club, a correspondence club that provided information and
___________ to women lawyers all over the United States for several years.
11. Read the text carefully and comment on the advice given to jurors. Be ready to
explain the relevance of each item:
Do’s and Don’ts for Jurors
During trial:
1. DO arrive on time and DO return promptly after breaks and lunch. The trial cannot
proceed until all jurors are present.
2. DO pay close attention to witnesses. Concentrate both on what the witness say and on
their manner while testifying. If you cannot hear what is being said, raise your hand
and let the judge know.
3. DO keep an open mind all through the trial.
4. DO listen carefully to the instructions read by the judge. Remember, it is your duty to
accept what the judge says about the law to be applied to the case.
5. DON'T try to guess what the judge thinks about the case. Remember that rulings from
the bench do not reflect the judge's personal views.
6. DON'T talk about the case, or issues raised by the case with anyone – including other
jurors – while the trial is going on, and DON'T let others talk about the case in your
presence, even family members. If someone insists on talking to you or another juror
about the case, please report the matter to a court employee. These rules are designed
to help you keep an open mind during the trial.
7. DON'T talk to the lawyers, parties, or witnesses about anything. This will avoid the
impression that something unfair is going on.
8. DON'T try to uncover evidence on your own. Never, for example, go to the scene of
an event that was part of the case you are hearing. You must decide the case only on
the basis of evidence admitted in court.
9. DON'T let yourself get information about the case from the news media or any other
outside source. Even if news reports are accurate and complete, they cannot substitute
for your own impressions about the case. If you accidentally hear outside information
about the case during trial, tell a member of the court staff in private.
During deliberation:
1. DO work out differences between yourself and other jurors through complete and fair
discussions of the evidence and of the judge's instructions. DON'T lose your temper.
2. DON'T mark or write on exhibits (documents).
3. DON'T try to guess what might happen if the case you have heard is appealed.
Appellate courts deal only with legal questions--they will not change your verdict if
you decided the facts based on proper evidence and instructions.
4. DON'T play cards, read, or engage in any other diversion.
5. DON'T talk to anyone about your deliberations or about the verdict until the judge
discharges the jury. After discharge, you may discuss the verdict and the deliberations
with anyone, including the media, the lawyers, or your family. But DON'T feel
obligated to do so – no juror can be forced to talk without a court order.
5. JUDGES IN THE UNITED KINGDOM
A good judge conceives quickly, judges slowly.

~ Proverb
The United Kingdom is almost unique in having not only two different kinds of lawyers
but also of judges. The two kinds of judges are Magistrates and High Court Judges.
Magistrates in England and Wales may be subdivided into: lay magistrates
and legal professionals permanently employed by the Ministry of Justice
(United Kingdom).
The vast majority of judges are unpaid. They are called Magistrates, Lay
Magistrates or Justices of the Peace (JPs). They are about 30 000 in the UK,
half of them are women. They are volunteers from all walks of life who deal
with about 95 per cent of criminal cases in England and Wales, including many
of the crimes that most affect the public, such as antisocial behaviour. In order
to become a magistrate you need to be able to commit at least 26 half-days per
year to sit in court. Magistrates are not paid for their services, so they give up
their time voluntarily.
Magistrates can be appointed from the age of 18 and they must retire at 70. However,
the Lord Chancellor will not generally appoint anyone aged 65 or over. Selection is based
entirely on merit and applications are welcome from all sections of the community regardless
of gender, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation. You don't need legal or academic
qualifications to be a magistrate and full training is provided. The initial training will normally
last six days (18 hours).
As was mentioned, no formal qualifications are required but magistrates need
intelligence, common sense and the capacity to act fairly. Police officers, traffic wardens
and members of the armed forces, as well as their close relatives will not be appointed.
The second group, professional magistrates, are nowadays known as District Judges
(Magistrates' Court) or Stipendiary Magistrates (which is to say, magistrates who receive a
stipend or payment). Unlike lay magistrates, District Judges sit alone and have the authority to
sit in any magistrates' court.
Magistrates are selected by special committees in every town and district. Nobody, even
the Magistrates themselves, knows who is on the special committee in their area. The
committee tries to select Magistrates from as wide a variety of professions and social classes
as possible.
A small proportion of judges are not Magistrates. They are formally called Justices of
Her Majesty's High Court of Justice or simply High Court Judges; they deal with the most
serious crimes, such as those for which the criminal might be sent to prison for more than a
year. High Court Judges, unlike Magistrates, are paid salaries by the state and have
considerable legal training.
High Court judges are appointed by The Queen on the advice of the Prime Minister and
Lord Chancellor. Under the Constitutional Reform Act (2005) a new Judicial Appointments
Commission has removed the appointment of judges from the political arena.
Formerly, High Court judges could only be appointed from among barristers of at least
10 years' standing. However, a typical appointee has about of twenty to thirty years'
experience as a lawyer. Until 2009 only four solicitors have been appointed as High Court
judges - Michael Sachs in 1993, Lawrence Collins in 2000, Henry Hodge in 2004, and Gary
Hickinbottom in 2008.
BASIC VOCABULARY
Lay non-professional or non-specialist; amateur

Anti-social contrary or injurious to the interests of society in general
To retire to give up or to cause (a person) to give up his work, a post, etc.,
esp. on reaching pensionable age (in Britain and Australia usually
65 for men, 60 for women)
Ethnicity A social group with a shared history, sense of identity, geography
and cultural roots which may occur despite racial difference
Common sense plain ordinary good judgment; sound practical sense
Traffic warden a person who is appointed to supervise road traffic and report
traffic offences
Standing - length/period of existence, experience, etc.
- the right or capacity to initiate a suit
Appointee one who is appointed to an office or position

1. What are the main types of judges in the UK?
2. What kind of people are Magistrates?
3. Why and how are they selected?
4. Who selects Lay Magistrates and what is unusual about this system?
5. What is the difference between Lay and Stipendiary Magistrates?
6. Who would judge a person who committed a crime like murder?
7. Who can be appointed as a High Court Judge?
8. Why are so few solicitors appointed as High Court Judges?
2. Are these statements true or false?
T/F 1. In the United Kingdom there are two types of judges called Magistrates and High
Court Judges.
T/F 2. All magistrates are unpaid.
T/F 3. To become a magistrate a person has to devote not less than 1 month per year to sitting
in court.
T/F 4. People of all professions can be appointed as magistrates.
T/F 5. Stipendiary Magistrates sit alone and have the authority to sit in any magistrates' court.
T/F 6. The committee tries to draw Magistrates from as minimal variety of professions and
social classes as possible.
T/F 7. High Court judges could only be appointed from among solicitors of at least 10 years’
standing.
3. In the text, find English equivalents for the following words and expressions:
judecător de pace мировой судья

voluntar доброволец, волонтёр
Lord cancelar Лорд-канцлер
ofiţer de poliţie офицер полиции
forţe militare вооружённые силы
magistrat salariat магистрат, получающий
жалованье
Maiestatea Sa Её Величество
beneficiar, persoană numită бенефициарий, назначаемое
într-un post лицо
4. Read Socrates’ saying. What judge’s qualities are mentioned? Who is a

good/successful judge to you? Would you like to become a judge? Why?
“Four things belong to a judge:

to hear courteously,
to answer wisely,
to consider soberly,
and to decide impartially.” (Socrates)
5. Read the following abstract from the Constitution of the Republic of Moldova.
Fill in the blanks with the appropriate words from the box:
president law successfully incompatible expiration

tenure impartial except reaching may
Status of Judges
(1) Judges sitting in the courts of _________ are independent, ___________ and
irremovable under the law.
(2) Judges sitting in the courts of law shall be appointed, under the law, by the
______________ of the Republic of Moldova upon proposal submitted by the Superior
Council of Magistrates. Judges who ________________ passed the contest shall be firstly
appointed for a 5-year term of office. After the _____________ of the 5-year term of office,
the judges shall be appointed to this position until ____________ the age limit fixed under the
law.
(3) The Presidents, Vice-Presidents and judges of the Supreme Court of Justice shall be
appointed by Parliament following a proposal submitted by the Superior Council of
Magistrates. They must have a working _____________ as judge of at least 10 years.
(4) Judges shall be promoted and transferred only at their own consent.
(5) Judges ___________ be punished as provided for under the rule of law.
(6) The office of judge shall be _______________ with the exercise of any other public
or private remunerated position, _____________ for the didactic and scientific activity.
6. Study the following table and supply the missing information, comparing
judges’ service in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Moldova.
UK RM
Status and definition

of judges
Controlling body
Education and
training
Judges’ appointment
Compatibility with
the exercise of other
positions
7. Read the following text and answer the questions:
1. What are the main types of judges in the USA?

2. What do the surrogate judges deal with?
3. How are subordinate jurisdiction judges called?
4. Who are referees?
5. What type of judges does not receive the honorific forms of address?
Judges in the United States
In the United States, a judge is addressed as "Your Honor" or "Judge" when presiding
over the court. The judges of the Supreme Court of the United States are called "justices" or
"judges of the peace".
New York judges who deal with guardianships, trusts and estates are known as
"surrogates".
A senior judge, in U.S. practice, is a retired judge who handles selected cases for a
governmental entity while in retirement, on a part-time basis.
Subordinate or inferior jurisdiction judges in U.S. legal practice are sometimes called
magistrates, although in the federal court of the United States, they are called magistrate
judges. Subordinate judges in U.S. legal practice appointed on a case-by-case basis,
particularly in cases where a great deal of detailed evidence must be reviewed, are often called
"masters" or "special masters".
Judges of courts of specialized jurisdiction (such as bankruptcy courts or juvenile courts)
were sometimes known officially as “referees”, but the use of this title is in decline. Judges
sitting in courts of equity in common law systems (such as judges in the equity courts of
Delaware) are called "Chancellors".
Individuals with judicial responsibilities, who report to an executive branch official,
rather than being a part of the judiciary, are often called "administrative law judges" in U.S.
practice and commonly make initial determinations regarding matters such as eligibility for
government benefits, regulatory matters, and immigration determinations.
Judges who derive their authority from a contractual agreement of the parties to a
dispute, rather than a governmental body are called arbitrators, and typically do not receive
the honorific forms of address, and do not have the symbolic trappings, of a publicly
appointed judge.
8. Solve the crossword.
ACROSS
3. A group of, usually twelve, people sworn to deliver a true verdict according to the evidence
upon a case presented in a court of law.
6. A person or thing that causes annoyance or bother; a monthly meeting that was more
___________ than pleasure.
9. Thieves’ World (abbreviation).
10. An act or omission prohibited and punished by law.
14. A minor official, such as a justice of the peace, having administrative and limited judicial
authority.
DOWN
1. A person against whom an action or claim is brought in a court of law.

2. A group of, usually twelve, people sworn to deliver a true verdict according to the evidence
upon a case presented in a court of law
4. A rule or body of rules made by the legislature.
5. The unlawful premeditated killing of one human being by another.
7. A magistrate who receives stable salary.
8. The place where legal proceedings and trials are heard.
11. The duration of holding a position, standing.
12. Military forces of a nation or nations, including the army, navy, air force, marines, etc.
1 2
3
4 5
6 7 8
9
1 1
0 1
1
2
1
4
6. TRUTH AS THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE OF THE JUDICIAL
PLEADING
If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything.
~ Mark Twain
The term ‘truth’ has no single definition about which the majority of professional
philosophers and scholars agree, and various theories of truth continue to be debated.
From the juridical point of view truth represents an accurate reflection of the objective
reality in thinking, by comparing what exists with what really happens.
There are three kinds of truth: objective, relative and absolute.
The objective truth reflects the existing reality, which is independent from the
human consciousness. The criterion of truth and its sources are based upon the social-
historical experience of humankind, that is why finding out the truth is a continuous
process unlimited in time one.
The relative truth is the reflection of reality, which is just, but approximate.
Scientific facts represent examples of relative truth. Using the relative and objective
truths, human consciousness permanently aims to the absolute truth.
The concept of absolute truth - what it is and whether it exists - has been debated
among many different groups of people. Philosophers find themselves in troubles trying
to define the absolute truth. For example, Plato believed that absolute truth existed, but
that truth on earth was merely a shadow of great forms of the absolute truth existing in
the universe. Alternatively, many believe in relative truth, where facts may vary
depending on the circumstances.
Along the history, all the conceptions, systems and schools were appreciated
through their attitude towards the truth. Truth is the key to any lawsuit or juridical
proceeding.
At the basis of all the branches of the studies of law lies the principle of absolute
truth, especially in the procedural law, where complete concordance between the facts
regarding the cause and the conclusion of the criminal lawsuit is demanded. A person
who has to give evidence in a trial will have to swear an oath that he will tell the truth
and nothing but the truth. He is required not to make a false statement or pass the truth
over in silence.
What we mean by telling the truth is that a person says a true sentence and not a
false one. As Aristotle said, “a true statement is the one by which you say that it is what
it is and that it is not what it is not".
In the Middle Ages, philosophers sustained that truth is the accord between object
and intellect. Legally speaking, we have the right to sustain that our opinions are true,
but we must be able to motivate them, seriously and firmly.
BASIC VOCABULARY
Scholar a learned person, esp. in the humanities
Debate a formal discussion, as in a legislative body, in which
opposing arguments are put forward; discussion or dispute
Accurate faithfully representing or describing the truth
Just - fair or impartial in action or judgment;
- conforming to high moral standards; honest
Lawsuit a proceeding in a court of law brought by one party against
another, esp. a civil action
Procedural law law that comprises rules and prescribes the procedures and
methods according to which a court hears and determines
what happens in civil lawsuit or criminal proceedings
Oath a solemn pronouncement to affirm the truth of a statement or
to pledge a person to some course of action, often involving a
sacred being or object as witness
Accord agreement or consent of opinion

1. What is truth?
2. What kinds of truth did you read about?
3. What does objective truth deal with?
4. What is relative truth?
5. Does absolute truth exist according to Plato’s point of view?
6. Do you think absolute truth exists?
7. What is a true statement in Aristotle’s way of thinking?
8. How did medieval philosophers define truth?
2. In the text, find synonyms to the following words and make sentences with
them:
origin mankind principle perfect to express

indeed precise scientist accordance
standpoint
3. Join pairs of antonyms.

1. truth a. fiction 1
2. false b. concordance 2
3. objective c. lie 3
4. reality d. irrespective 4
5. majority e. subjective 5
6. absolute f. partial 6
7. disagreement g. true 7
8. respective h. minority 8
a) Truth demands a complete …………………. of facts.
b) The relative truth is the ………………, but ………………. reflection of reality.
c) Many believe in relative truths, where facts may …………. depending on the
circumstances.
d) To say truth means to say a …………….. sentence, not a false one.
e) Scientific facts represent ……………… truth.
f) The process of finding out truth is ………………. and ……………….. in time.
g) Before giving evidence in a trial, the witness must say the …………., the whole
…………….. and nothing but the ………………….
5. In the text, find English equivalents for the following:
a depune mărturie давать свидетельские

показания
conştiinţă umană человеческое сознание
a trece sub tăcere обходить молчанием,
утаивать
a depune un jurămînt приносить присягу
adevăr relativ относительная истина
cauza причина
a descoperi adevărul выяснить правду
afirmaţie falsă ложное утверждение
6. Use the following expressions in sentences of your own:
 to give evidence
 to tell the truth
 to pass something over in silence
 judicial proceedings
 sentence
 firm
 cause
8. Role-play: Finding out the truth.
a) Provide a term for the following definition.

A general pardon, especially for offences against a government; a period during
which a law is suspended to allow offenders to admit their crime without fear of
prosecution – is called
b) And now examine the cases and be ready to defend your view-point. The phrases in
the boxes will help you.
… Because of this…
… On account of
this…
… That’s the reason
why…
NEW PRESIDENT OFFERS AMNESTY! He has called a meeting of his advisors
(you) to decide which prisoners should be released. The president has provided each
group of advisors with a list of potential prisoners. He wants his advisors to recommend
which SIX prisoners should be released from jail. Examine the facts of nine prisoners
carefully and present your decisions in a written formal letter.
Memo
To: Amnesty Committee Advisors
From: The Office of the President
Re: List of Prisoners
Note: To preserve the prisoner’s identity from the press, names have
been withheld from this memo. Here follows a list of the nine
prisoners up for a possibility of amnesty. All are considered as very
little risk to society. Please inform the President of your final
decision.
Number 1 is a 20-year-old student. He broke into the police’s computer system

and tried to erase his previous criminal record (some parking tickets). He was also
charged with fraud after police discovered he had hacked into a pizza company’s
computer and ordered himself free pizzas for over a year. He is serving a five-year
sentence.
Number 2 is a 55-year-old engineer. He was charged with manslaughter after he
hit and killed a child while driving drunk. He has no previous criminal record. He is
serving a ten-year sentence.
Number 3 is a 30-year-old mother of two. She was charged with drug dealing
when police found half a kilogram of marijuana in her apartment. She says it was for
personal use, but drug laws are very strict in this country. She is serving a five-year
sentence.
Number 4 is a 24-year-old student and activist. He was arrested during an anti-
globalization protest and charged with terrorism. He is a leader of a non-violent social
movement and did not participate directly in any violent acts during his protests. He is
serving a three-year sentence.
Number 5 is a 40-year-old businessman. He was charged with fraud when police
discovered that he had stolen over $2 million from his company using a false system of
accounting. He is serving a ten-year sentence.
Number 6 is an unemployed woman. She was arrested for stealing food from a
supermarket. This was not the first time that she had stolen food, and she had been
warned. She is serving an eight-year sentence.
Number 7 is a prisoner of war. He was taken prisoner during the last war with the
country’s neighbours six years ago. He was a marine and engineer and was responsible
for bombing a small village in the mountains. He says he was following orders. The two
countries are now at peace. He is serving a twenty-year sentence.
Number 8 is a landlord. He was arrested for keeping a block of flats in very dirty,
and some cases dangerous conditions. He was also renting the apartments to illegal
immigrants and charging a lot of money for them. He is serving a seven-year sentence.
Number 9 is a politician. She was a leading member of the Ultra political party, an
extreme group who believed that criminals should be executed and immigrants expelled
from the country. The Ultra party is very weak now. She was arrested for stealing party
funds and is serving a ten-year jail sentence.
9. Comment on the statements below:
 The lawyer's truth is not Truth, but consistency or a consistent expediency.

(Henry David Thoreau)
 A lawyer will do anything to win a case, sometimes he will even tell the truth.
(Barton Holyday)
 It takes a good shovelful of earth to bury the truth. (Proverb)
 Children and fools cannot lie. (Proverb)
7. BRANCHES OF LAW
Where you find the laws most numerous, there you will find also the greatest injustice.
~ Arcesilaus
Stop & Think. What legal subjects do you study this year? In groups brainstorm as
many subjects as you can think of which make up a law degree.
In order to understand the many different aspects of law it is helpful to look at the
various areas or classifications of law. There are many legal principles or rules of law that
are found in statutes, cases decided by courts, and other sources that are applied by the
courts in order to decide lawsuits. These principles of law are classified as substantive law.
On the other hand, the legal procedures that provide how a lawsuit is begun, how the trial is
conducted, how appeals are taken, and how a judgment is enforced are called procedural
law.
In other words, substantive law is that part of law that defines rights, and procedural
law establishes the procedures according to which rights are enforced and protected.
Law is also frequently classified into areas of public and private law. Public law
includes those branches of law that affect the public generally; private law includes the
areas of the law that are concerned with the relationship between individuals.
Public law may be divided into three general categories:
1. constitutional law, which concerns with the study, interpretation, and
application of a state’s constitution, including the issues of governance, the powers of the
branches of government, civil liberties, and civil rights.
2. administrative law, which concerns with different governing administrative
agencies - that is, the agencies created by Congress or state legislatures.
3. criminal law, which consists of rules and statutes that forbid certain conduct
and provides punishment for violation of these laws.
Private law is the branch of law that deals with the relationships between individuals
in an organized society. Private law considers the subjects of contracts, torts and property.
Each of these subjects includes several branches of law. For example, the law of contracts
may be subdivided into the subjects of sales, commercial paper, business organizations.
The law of torts is the primary source of litigation in country. A tort is a wrong
committed by one person against another person or his property. In a civilized society
people who injure other persons or their property should compensate them for their loss.
The law of property may be thought as a branch of the law of contracts. In any case
property is the basic ingredient in our economic system, and the subject matter may be
subdivided into several areas such as wills, trusts, and estate in land, personal property
and many more.
BASIC VOCABULARY
To apply to put to practical use; to put in an application or request

To enforce to ensure and impose observance of or obedience to (a law,
decision, etc.)
Governance the action, manner, or system of governing/controlling
Legislature a body of persons vested with power to make, amend, and
repeal laws
Sale the exchange of goods, property, or services for an agreed sum
of money or credit
Wrong (n.) violation of another person's rights, rendering the offender
liable to a civil action, as for breach of contract or tort
Loss the act or an instance of losing
Trust an arrangement whereby a person to whom the legal title to
property is conveyed (the trustee) holds such property for the
benefit of those entitled to the beneficial interest
Estate in land an interest in land that is provided with certain rights and
obligations, and carries a right to occupy or receive the benefit
of the land
1. What is substantive law according to the classification of law? 2. What is procedural law?
3. Into what areas is law frequently classified? 4. What does public law include? 5. Into what
three general categories may public law be divided? 6. What is private law? 7. What is the
primary source of litigation? 8. What is property?
2. Are the following statements true or false? Correct the false ones.
T/F 1. In order to understand the many different aspects of law it is useful to look at few
classifications of law.
T/F 2. Law is often classified into areas of public and constitutional law.
T/F 3. Public law may be divided into three general categories: constitutional, administrative
and penal law.
T/F 4. Civil law consists of rules and statutes that forbid certain conduct and provides
punishment for the violation of these rules.
T/F 5. Private law includes the subjects of contracts, torts and property.
T/F 6. A tort is a wrong committed by one person against another one or his property.
T/F 7. Property is the main ingredient in any economic system.]
3. Translate the following words and word combinations:
procedural law
proprietate privată частная собственность
commercial paper
to provide punishment for
violation of law
drept public şi privat публичное и частное право
to decide lawsuits
prejudiciu деликт/гражданское
правонарушение
sistem economic экономический строй
legal principles
subject of sale
drept contractual договорное право, договор-
но-обязательственное право
 wrong
 subject
 body
5. Match the terms with their definitions:

1. common law a. the system of jurisprudence of ancient Rome,
2. English law codified under Justinian and forming the basis
3. judge-made/case law of many modern legal systems
4. civil law b. law established by following judicial decisions
5. maritime law given in earlier cases
6. business/commercial/trade c. the legal system of England and Wales, that is
law the basis of common law legal systems used in
7. law of equity most Commonwealth countries and the United
8. family law States
9. patent law d. the body of law based on judicial decisions and
10. penal law custom, as distinct from statute law
11. Roman law f. the law that consists of the totality of the
12. international law juridical standards regarding business activity
13. labour law g. law that deals with family relations
e. laws and regulations, including international
agreements and treaties, which exclusively
govern activities at sea or in any navigable
waters
h. the law of a state relating to private and civilian
affairs
i. branch of jurisprudence that studies the laws
governing patents
j. the body of law dealing with the constitution of
offences and the punishment of offenders
k. the set of legal principles, in jurisdictions
following the English common law tradition,
which supplement strict rules of law where their
application would operate harshly, so as to
achieve what is sometimes referred to as "natural
justice"
l. those areas of law which appertain to the
relationship between employers and employees
and between employers and trade unions
m. the totality of standards and principles that
regulates the relationships between states and
international organizations
6. Match the elements of the phrases from the text:
1. public law includes bodies of law that a. compensate their loss

2. relationship between individuals b. affect the public
3. punishment is provided for c. a branch of the law of contracts
4. for injuring people you have to d. wills, trusts, estates in land, etc.
5. the property law is often thought as e. violation of law
6. subjects of the property law are f. are subjects of private law
7. Role-Play. A Telephone Conversation

A visiting lecturer from Australia is coming to your law faculty to give a series of lectures.
He needs some information about your courses. He is calling the Faculty Office and
speaks to a student who is working there part-time.
If you are a student, study the following information:
You are a student of law, working part-time in the Faculty Office. You receive a
phone call from an Australian professor who is coming to your faculty next week
for a series of lectures and wants to enquire about courses taught in your faculty.
Answer the professor’s questions and offer to send an e-mail message with
detailed explanations of the courses that are of particular interest to him.
Remember to check the e-mail address
If you are a professor, this information will help you:
You are a Professor of Civil Law at the University of Canberra, Australia, and
are coming to Moldova next week to give a series of lectures to 1st-year students
of law. In order to prepare your lectures, you would like some background
information on the courses taught in your university. Call the Faculty Office,
explaining who you are and asking for the relevant information. Prepare what
you are going to enquire about. Ask for details concerning the courses you are
interested
With a classmate, write an e-mail message to the Australian Professor and give him details
about your curriculum.
8. Translate the following text into English.
Sistemul legal Правовая система

Ramurile de bază ale sistemului de Правовая система включает в себя
drept sunt constituite din: dreptul следующие основные отрасли:
constituţional, dreptul administrativ, dreptul государственное, административное,
financiar, dreptul funciar, dreptul civil, финансовое, земельное, гражданское,
dreptul familiei, dreptul muncii, dreptul семейное, трудовое, уголовное,
penal, dreptul procedural-civil procedural- гражданское процессуальное и уголовно-
penal, etc. процессуальное и т.п.
Dreptul statal este cel mai important Ведущее место в системе права
dintre toate ramurile sistemului legal, занимает государственное право. Это
deoarece dreptul legal (cîteodata связано с тем, что государственное
denumindu-se şi constituţional) formează (иногда оно именуется
principiile de bază, care de fapt sunt baza конституционным) право формирует
altor ramuri legale. основные принципы, которые
Partea de bază a normelor dreptului составляют основу для других отраслей
constituţional al Republicii Moldova sunt права.
stipulate în Constituţia Republicii Moldova, Значительная часть норм
de asemenea şi în alte acte juridice (de конституционного права Республики
exemplu, în drept de cetăţenie). Normele Молдова содержится в Конституции
dreptului constituţional consolidează baza Республики Молдова, а также в других
constituţională a sistemului social, a законодательных актах (например, в
drepturilor umane, sistemul puterii de stat şi законах о гражданстве). Нормы
altor aspecte ale organizării de stat. конституционного права закрепляют
основы конституционного строя,
правовое положение личности, систему
государственной власти и другие
вопросы государственного устройства.
8. KINDS OF LAW: CRIMINAL AND CIVIL
Good people do not need laws to tell them to act

responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.
~Plato
There are two main kinds of law: CRIMINAL LAW and CIVIL LAW. Constitutional law
affects both of them.
Criminal law
In a criminal case the state prosecutes the accused person for committing a crime or
breaking the law. 'Prosecutes' means the state makes a charge against someone. If the court
finds the person guilty, the person can be sent to prison, or fined, or punished in some other
way.
Examples of different crimes and breaking the law are:
• rape
• public violence
• assault
• theft
• trespass.
Usually the state is not the complainant (the one making a charge). The state prosecutes,
but any person or individual can be the complainant and lay a charge against another person or
against the state.
A criminal case can be brought against anyone who broke the law, including a person who
works for the state, such as a member of the police or defence force. So if, for example, you are
unlawfully assaulted or shot by a member of the police or defence force you can bring a
criminal case against them.
Civil law
Civil law is the set of rules for your private relationships with other people. The state does
not take sides in a dispute between private people.
Examples of what civil law deals with are:
• marriage and divorce
• if someone owes you money
• rent agreements
• evictions
• damage to property
• injuries to people
• disputes over a hire-purchase agreement.
A civil case is usually brought by a person (called the plaintiff) who feels that he or she
was wronged by another person (called the defendant). If the plaintiff wins the case, the court
usually orders the defendant to pay compensation (money). Sometimes the court may also
order a defendant to do, or stop doing, something - for example, to stop damaging the plaintiff's
property.
The state may be involved in a civil case as a party if it is suing or being sued for a
wrongful act - for example, if government property is damaged or a government official injures
somebody without good reason.
Criminal and civil actions
Sometimes a person's act may lead to both criminal and civil actions. For example, Piet
Fick hits one of the workers in his factory. This is a crime of assault. The state will prosecute
him in the criminal court if the worker lays a charge against him. If there is enough proof to
show that he is guilty, he may be punished by the state.
But Piet Fick ALSO causes pain to the worker. This is a damage that one person does to
another person. The injured worker could sue Mr Fick for damages and make him pay
compensation for medical expenses, lost wages and pain and suffering. This will be a civil
claim for damages through the civil court.
BASIC VOCABULARY
Criminal law the law that deals with the constitution of offences and the
punishment of offenders
Charge a formal accusation brought against a person stating the crime
that he is alleged to have committed
Fine (noun) a certain amount of money exacted as a penalty;
(verb) to impose to pay a certain amount of money exacted as a
penalty
Trespass the intentional and wrongful invasion of another's real property
Complainant a person who makes a formal charge in the court of law
Plaintiff a person who brings a civil action in a court of law (also known
as claimant)
Civil law the law of a state relating to private and civilian affairs
To owe to be under an obligation to pay (someone) to the amount of; to
be in debt
Agreement a properly executed and legally binding accord or contract
Eviction (in civil law) deprivation of buyer’s property according to the
court decision
Defendant a person against whom an action or claim is brought in a court of
law
To sue to institute legal proceedings (against)
Assault a violent attack, either physical or verbal
Proof - any evidence that establishes or helps to establish the
truth, validity, quality, etc., of something;
- the whole body of evidence upon which the verdict of a
court is based
1. What kinds of law do you know?

2. What do we mean by the term ‘to prosecute’?
3. What can happen with a person if he/she is found guilty by the court of law?
4. Give examples of criminal actions.
5. What do we mean by ‘civil law’?
6. Give examples of civil actions.
7. Who brings a civil case in the court of law?
8. What are the basic differences between criminal and civil law?
2. Join pairs of antonyms.
1. to be released from prison a. marriage

2. to sell b. to win a case
3. defendant c. individual
4. divorce d. plaintiff
5. to observe/follow the law e. to break the law
6. juridical person f. to be sent to prison
7. to lose an action g. to purchase
3. Find synonyms for the following words:
1. wages -
___________________________________________________________________________
2. prison -
___________________________________________________________________________
3. to rent -
___________________________________________________________________________
4. to break the law -
___________________________________________________________________________
5. individual -
___________________________________________________________________________
6. case -
___________________________________________________________________________
7. defence -
___________________________________________________________________________
4. Find in the text the English equivalents for the words below:
plângere иск
a comite o crimă cовершить преступление
a încălca legea нарушать закон
a plăti despăgubiri выплачивать компенсацию
/recompensa (pentru)
a amenda налагать штраф
a trimite pe cineva la сесть в тюрьму/быть
închisoare приговорённым к
тюремному заключению
a aduce cuiva o acuzaţie предъявлять обвинение 1
против кого-либо 2
3
cheltuieli medicale расходы на медицинское
обслуживание
răpire изнасилование
furt кража
5. Law breakers.
a) Match the definitions on the left with the words on the right.
Law Breaker Definition Translation

1. an arsonist a. attacks and robs people, often in the street
2. a shop-lifter b. sets fire to property illegally
3. a mugger c. is anyone who breaks the law
4. an offender d. breaks into houses or other buildings to steal
5. a vandal e. steals from shops while acting as an ordinary
6. a burglar customer
7. a murderer f. kills someone
8. a kidnapper g. deliberately causes damage to property
9. a pickpocket h. steals things from people’s pockets in crowded places
10. an i. gets secret information from another country
accomplice j. buys and sells drugs illegally
11. a drug dealer k. takes away people by force and demands money for
12. a spy their return
13. a terrorist l. helps a criminal in a criminal act
14. an assassin m. uses violence for political reasons
15. a hooligan n. causes damage or disturbance in public places
16. a stowaway o. hides on a ship or plane to get a free journey
17. a thief p. takes control of a plane by force and makes the pilot
18. a hijacker change course
19. a forger q. murders for political reasons or a reward
20. a robber r. is someone who steals
21. a smuggler s. makes counterfeit (false) money or signatures
22. a traitor t. is a member of a criminal group
23. a gangster u. steals money, etc. by force from people or places
24. a deserter v. marries illegally, being married already
25. a bigamist w. is a soldier who runs away from the army
x. brings goods into a country illegally without paying
tax
y. betrays his or her country to another state
b) Group the law-breakers according to the following classification:
Law-breakers who commit crimes against the Law-breakers who commit crimes against
person property
Public order offenders Sexual offenders
Political offenders Offenders who commit crimes against

justice
6. Here is an example of a case where set of events can lead to both criminal and civil actions.
Read it and identify the purpose of the action, parties involved, decision taken and sanctions.
Strange but True Story of the Cigars
A man from Charlotte, North Carolina, having purchased a case of very expensive cigars,
insured them, among other things, against fire. Within a month, having smoked his entire
stockpile, the man filed a claim against the insurance company, stating that the cigars were lost
'in a series of small fires'.
The insurance company refused to pay, citing the obvious reason that the man had
consumed the cigars in the normal fashion. The man sued - and won.
In delivering the ruling the judge, agreeing that the claim was frivolous, stated
nevertheless that the man held a policy from the company in which it had warranted that the
cigars were insurable and also guaranteed that it would insure against fire, without defining
what it considered to be 'unacceptable fire' , and was obliged to pay the claim. Rather than
endure a lengthy and costly appeal the insurance company accepted the ruling and paid the man
$15,000 for the rare cigars he had lost 'in the fires'.
After he cashed the cheque, however, the company had him arrested on 24 counts of
arson. His own insurance claim and testimony from the previous case being used against him,
the man was convicted of intentionally burning his insured property and sentenced to 24
months in jail and a $24,000 fine.
Can you think of cases related to both civil and criminal law? In pairs prepare to describe
such cases to the class.
7. Translate the following article into English.
MEDICI DIN CHIŞINĂU RISCĂ КИШИНЕВСКИЕ МЕДИКИ
SĂ FIE CONDAMNAŢI PENTRU МОГУТ БЫТЬ ОСУЖДЕНЫ ЗА
ATITUDINEA INUMANĂ FAŢĂ DE БЕССЕРДЕЧНОЕ ОТНОШЕНИЕ К
O PACIENTĂ ИНОГОРОДНЕЙ ПАЦИЕНТКЕ
Chişinău. Procuratura Ungheni a Кишинев. Прокуратура города
deschis un dosar penal pe numele unor Унгень возбудила уголовное дело по
lucrători medicali, acuzaţi de ignorarea факту пренебрежения правилами и
regulilor şi metodelor de asistenţă методами оказания медицинской по-
medicală, soldată cu decesul Alei мощи, что привело к смерти 28-летней
Hamureac, în vîrstă de 28 de ani, Аллы Хамуряк.
locuitoarea satului Romanovca. Как сообщили "ИНФОТАГ" в
Agenţia INFOTAG transmite cu Генеральной прокуратуре, эта житель-
referire la surse din Procuratura Generală ница села Романовка 4 ноября 2006 г.
că, pe 4 noiembrie 2006, femeia a născut родила ребёнка в Унгенской райболь-
un copil la spitalul raional din Ungheni. нице. Поскольку роды прошли с
Naşterea a decurs cu complicaţii şi copilul осложнениями, ребенка отправили в
a fost trimis la Centrul Sănătăţii Mamei şi Кишиневский центр матери и ребенка,
Copilului din Chişinău, dar în ambulanţă при этом самой роженице не нашлось
nu s-a găsit loc şi pentru mamă. места в машине скорой помощи.
Hamureac, care de asemenea a suportat Хамуряк, тяжело перенесшая роды,
naşterea cu mare greu, a fost nevoită să вынуждена была добираться в столицу
ajungă în capitală cu o maşină de ocazie, на попутной машине. Однако в центре
dar la Centru nu i s-a acordat atenţia şi ей не оказали должного внимания и
tratamentul cuvenite. Femeia a leşinat şi лечения. Медики спохватились, только
nu a putut fi readusă în cunoştinţă nici în когда женщина потеряла сознание. В
secţia de reanimare, unde a intrat în comă. реанимации ее не удалось привести в
În această stare, peste 40 de zile, ea a fost сознание, более того, она впала в кому.
trimisă înapoi la spitalul din Ungheni, И в таком состоянии роженицу спустя
unde a decedat cu o săptămînă mai tîrziu. 40 дней отправили 27 декабря обратно
În cazul în care medicii vor fi găsiţi в районную больницу, где через
vinovaţi de deces, ei riscă pînă la 5 ani de неделю Хамуряк скончалась.
închisoare şi interdicţia practicării Если суд определит, что в ее смерти
activităţii medicale pe parcursul виновны медики, им грозит до пяти лет
următorilor 5 ani. лишения свободы и запрет на такой же
срок заниматься врачебной
деятельностью.
8. Punishments and penalties. Check your knowledge of punishment and penalty

vocabulary with this quiz.
1. Punish is the verb and punishment is the noun, but what is the adjective form of the word?
What are the verb and adjective forms of the noun penalty?
2. Choose the most appropriate word in bold in this sentence: 'The court ordered the
defendant to pay purgative / punishing / punitive / pugnacious damages to the claimant
for the emotional distress he had caused.'
3. What do we call a punishment which is considered to be strong enough to stop someone
from committing a crime? Is it: (a) a detergent (b) a deterrent (c) a detriment (d) a
determinant?
4. Some countries still have corporal punishment and some still have capital punishment.
What happens to the people who receive these punishments?
5. In Moldova, a man is stopped by the police for driving at 95 in a 50mph zone. What will
(probably) happen to him?
6. Next week, the same man is stopped again, and the police discover that he has been
drinking alcohol and has over twice the allowed limit of alcohol in his body. What will
probably happen to him now?
7. Rearrange the letters in bold to make words. The first and last letters of each word are in
the correct place: 'If a defendant is found guilty of an offence in a court of law, he is
ciecnotvd. If he is found not guilty, he is ateqciutd.'
8. What's the difference between a custodial sentence, a suspended sentence and probation?
9. What is the maximum penalty allowed for crime in the United Kingdom?
10. Prison is a noun. What is the verb form of this word?
11. A woman is sentenced to 6 months in prison for theft, 4 months in prison for selling
drugs, and 1 month in prison for refusing to pay her council tax. The judge tells her that
these sentences will be concurrent, or run concurrently. What is the maximum length of
time the woman will spend in prison?
12. True or false: If someone receives a community service order, they have to go to prison.
13. Choose the correct word in bold in this sentence: An injection / injunction / injury /
injustice is a court order telling someone to stop doing something, or not to do
something.
14. What do we call money that is paid from one party to another to cover the cost of damage,
loss, injury or hardship? (Clue: it begins with c and ends with n)
15. Mr. Smith goes to the Bahamas to start a new life. While he is there, an English court
applies a freezing order to Mr. Smith's assets. Would Mr. Smith be happy or unhappy
about this?
9. Debate.
Reintegration: a Real Process or a Meaningless Word?

Read the statements below attentively and work in groups – pro and con. Prepare your
arguments for and against the statements below. Appoint the ‘Chair’ of the debate who will
give the floor to the speakers of the both teams.
 Society is not ready to accept ex-prisoners. They will always be objects of suspicion in
the community.
 Society helps prisoners make the transition from prison to the community.
 It’s never too late to start
9. FAMILY LAW
The family is one of nature's masterpieces.

~ George Santayana
Family law is a branch or specialty of law, also known as ‘domestic relations’ law that
deals with family relations. It concerns with such subjects as adoption, marriage, divorce,
separation, paternity, child custody and visitation, separation agreement, estate planning,
support and child care.
In the past, family law has been closely connected with the law of property. It has origins
in the economic law. In old legal systems, marriage was regarded as the transfer of a woman
from the power of her family to that of her husband under terms specified in the marriage
contract. And the standard method of dissolving a marriage usually resulted in the return of the
woman to the power of her family.
The modern idea of marriage, which is becoming almost universal, is a voluntary
exchange of promises between the man and the woman. Before getting married couples may be
involved in substantial decision to property, these matters now tend to be automatic (when
there is no marriage contract) or to be formalized separately. The ceremony itself is normally
an exchange of consents accompanied by religious observances or a civil ceremony (or both).
The purpose of the legal formalities is to differentiate the relationship from concubinage
allowing to legally recognize custody of children, rights under matrimonial regimes, etc.
In order to satisfy the requirement of a voluntary consent to a marriage, a party must have
reached an age at which he or she is able to give a meaningful consent. Most modern legal
systems provide for a legal minimum age of marriage from 15 to 20 years. Some systems
require parental consent to marriage when the parties are above the minimum age.
Other laws forbid marriage between persons having certain ties of relationship, either of
blood or of marriage.
A marriage can terminate as a human relationship before it is dissolved by law. Often the
court rulings - as to property and the custody of children - will merely confirm arrangements
that have already been made by the parties. In the United States and Canada, 80 to 90% of
divorce proceedings are undefended.
There are various divorce formulas: divorce for fault, such as adultery, cruelty or
imprisonment; divorce for contract’s frustration, such as incurable mental diseases or
disappearance of the spouse; divorce by mutual agreement; and divorce on the ground that the
marriage has broken down.
A complicating factor in divorce law is the question of giving recognition to foreign
divorces. The divorce laws of countries and states differ. So a person living a jurisdiction in
which divorce is difficult to obtain may be able to go to another country in which divorce laws
are more liberal.
Family law also shares an interest in some social issues with other areas of law (e.g.,
criminal law). One of the issues that has received much attention is the very difficult problem
of violence within the family. This may take the form of physical violence by one adult
member on another (in this case the woman is almost always the victim), or by an adult on a
child. The problem is one of social importance and some studies indicate that a high proportion
of violent crime originates in family units.
BASIC VOCABULARY
Adoption a legal proceeding that creates a parent-child relation between

persons not related by blood; the adopted child is entitled to all
privileges belonging to a natural child of the adoptive parents
(including the right to inherit)
Separation the termination of cohabitation (living together) between a man and
wife, either by mutual agreement or under a decree of a court
Paternity the fact or state of being a father
Custody the act of keeping safe or guarding, esp. the right of guardianship of
a child
Estate the whole property or possessions
Consent acceptance or approval of what is planned or done by another
Concubinage the act of living together without being married
To dissolve to come or bring to an end
Adultery sexual unfaithfulness of a husband or wife [Latin adulterium]
Frustration of a legal termination of a contract due to unforeseen circumstances that
contract (1) prevent achievement of its objectives, (2) render its
performance illegal, or (3) make it practically impossible to execute
Victim a person or thing that suffers harm, death, etc., from another or
from some adverse (negative) act, circumstance, etc.
1. What is family law?

2. What are the origins of family law?
3. What is marriage?
4. What is the minimum age of marriage?
5. Do you think that marriage contract is the best solution of marital-property problems?
6. Why is society interested in legal regulation of familial relationships?
7. What are the most common divorce formulas?
8. What is foreign divorce?
9. Does the problem of family violence exist in Moldova?
2. In the text, find antonyms for the following words and make sentences with them:
maximum adult unification

forced to allow divorce
1. domestic relations law a. only 1

2. support b. important 2
3. connected c. family law 3
4. economic law d. matrimony 4
5. marriage e. freewill 5
6. marriage contract f. marital agreement 6
7. voluntary g. paternal 7
8. to tend to h. illness
8
9. parental i. to aim at
9
10. merely j. business law
10
11. disease k. help
12. substantial l. a wife or a husband 11
13. spouse m. related 12
13
1. In the past, family law has been closely connected with the law of ……………… .
2. In old legal systems, the standard method of dissolving a …………. usually was in the
return of the …….… to the power of her family.
3. Some systems require ………… consent to marriage when the parties are …………
the minimum age.
4. The divorce ……….. of countries and states differ.
5. Family violence may take the form of …………. violence by one adult member on
another or by an ………. on a child.
6. A high proportion of violent …………. originates in family ………… .
5. Make up sentences out of these words and expressions. They can be found in the
text.
1. a branch, Family, deals with, law, is, or, of, law, specialty, relations, that, family.
2. idea of, woman, between, exchange, The modern, marriage, is, of, the man, and, the, a
voluntary, promises.
3. observances, itself, is, exchange of, ceremony, an, The ceremony, consents,
accompanied, a, civil, by, or, normally, religious.
4. terminate, can, A marriage, as, before, a relationship, human, law, it, by, is, dissolved.
6. Correct mistakes in the sentences given below. You can find the right versions
in the text.
1. In old legal sistems, mariage was regarded as the transfer of a woman from the power
of her family to that of her husband under term specifyed in the mariage contract.
2. Before geting maried couples may be involved in substantal decision to property, thise
matters now tends to be automatic (when there is no mariage contract) or to be formalised
separatly.
3. In order to satisfy the requirment of a voluntary consent to a mariage, a party must
have reached an age at which he or she is able to give a meaningfull consent.
7. Find in the text the English equivalents for the words below:
drept familial cемейное право 1.

2.
vizitarea copilului посещение ребёнка
îngrijire de copii забота о ребёнке
concubinaj внебрачное сожительство
consimţămînt părintesc родительское благословение
desfacerea căsătoriei расторжение брака
detenţiune cu închisoarea тюремное заключение
zădărnicie a unui contract тщетность договора/
недостижимость цели
договора
violenţa familială насилие в семье
8. Fill in the gaps with the appropriate verb forms from the table:
The marriage law of most Western European nations and of the USA is the product of
Roman Catholic law that .................... (1) by the changed cultural and social conditions of
modern industrialized and urbanized life. Modern marriage law regards marriage as a civil
transaction and allows only monogamous unions. The age limits for marriage, which formely
permitted 12-year-olds or even younger persons to marry, ..................... (2) upward in most
countries to 15-21 years of age.
Islamic law ..................... (3) the practice of polygamy, but polygany was decreasing in
almost all Muslim countries by the late 20th century. Polygamous marriages ...................... (4)
under customary laws in many African nations, but there is growing tendency toward
monogamy. There is no uniform marriage law in many developing African countries. The
regulation of marital relations is based ............(5) on religion...............(5) on the customary
laws of the territory. This gives rise to complex problems in the case of tribal, ethnic, or
religious intermarriage.
1 had been modified has been modified was modified

2 were revised have been revised had been revised
3 permitted has permitted permits
4 have been permitted were permitted are permitted
5 neither ... nor or ... either either ... or
9. Divorce Case
a) Make as many words as they can using these letters:
PAITNSHEROLI
b) Look at these expressions about John and Cristina. Which ones indicate that they are
in a happy relationship, and which expressions indicate that they are in an unhappy
relationship? Write H for happy and U for unhappy next to each sentence.
 Their relationship is on the rocks.
 They are still in a honeymoon period.
 They aren’t getting along very well.
 They’re going through a rough patch.
 They can’t see enough of each other.
 She can’t put up with him any more.
 They’re going (their) separate ways.
 They stick together through thick and thin.
c) Imagine you are judges. YOU are responsible for divorce cases where the husband
and wife cannot agree. Today you have been presented with another difficult case: Ford vs.
Ford. Read about the case below.
Cristina Ford
Cristina Ford is a forty-year-old advertising executive. She works very long hours and
earns a lot of money. Since their daughter Olivia was born four years ago, Cristina has worked
and supported the family.
John Ford
John Ford is an unemployed forty-two year old man. He worked for many years in a
bookshop. At the moment he is trying to write a novel. He stopped working when their
daughter Olivia was born, and has stayed at home to take care of her for the past four years.
The Divorce
John and Cristina got married ten years ago. They began to have problems in their
marriage after Olivia was born. They have decided to get divorced, but are now very angry
with one another.
Cristina wants:
· Full custody of Olivia.
· The family house, a three-bedroom house in a nice part of town.
· Charlie, the family dog.
· Cristina wants to sell the summer beach apartment and share the money. She refuses to
give John any money at all. She does not want any money from John. John can see his
daughter every two weeks and have her for the summer holidays.
John wants:
· Full custody of Olivia.
· Charlie, the family dog.
· The summer beach apartment so he can write there.
· John wants to sell the family house in the city and share the money. He also wants
Cristina to pay $1000 a month for child support. Cristina can see her daughter every two
weeks and have her for the summer holidays. John also wants $25 000 compensation because
he feels he sacrificed his work to raise Olivia.
d) Now discuss with the other judges in your group. You must come to a decision and
make some clear recommendations. Write your recommendations.
10. COMMERCIAL LAW
A lawyer’s opinion is worth nothing unless paid for.

~ English proverb
Business law (also known as commercial law) consists of the totality of the juridical
standards regarding interposing and circulation of merchandise from the producer to the
consumer. It includes all aspects of business, including advertising and marketing,
collections and bankruptcy, banking, contracts, negotiable instruments, transactions, and
trade in general. Other popular areas refer to insurance, wills and estate planning, consumer
and creditor protection.
From the juridical point of view, commercial law establishes not only the production
(industry), but also the circulation (distribution) of wares.
The Antiquity
In ancient times, the first manifestation of exchange appeared at the same time with the
emerging of the idea of property. In order to satisfy their vital needs, people started to
exchange their products between themselves. In this way appeared the barter, a primitive form
of exchange of goods (services) for other goods (or services) without the use of money.
The continuous increase of the people’s needs determined certain forms of organization,
in which they assured the conditions for a great number of people to meet in certain periods of
time and in places already established. This way appeared the markets. The Greeks were the
first who established rules regarding traders’ activity. Thus, the city agoranomos (market
supervisor) had to ensure that sellers sell fairly and use the city’s weights and measures. He
could not restrict the sellers to volume of sales or time. In the good years of Rome there were
juridical institutions regarding traders’ activity.
The Middle Ages
In the Middle ages, the collapse of Roman Empire determined the division of political
power. And instead of a uniform law, there appeared the specific law for the different states
that resulted. In order to defend their rights, the tradesmen began to organize themselves in
corporations (called universitaria) which significantly obtained the administrative, juridical
and even legislative autonomy. A corporation consisted of all commercial men and
handicraftsmen from the same field and the leader was a consul, helped around by
councillors. The consul issued internal standards, based on customs, in order to solve
litigations between the members of a corporation. These norms were collected in statutes.
The Modern Period
It was the period when the written law of commerce appeared. The first country that
passed from common law to written law for the whole territory was France, starting with
Charles IX’s edict issued in 1563. In 1807, the French Commercial Code was adopted,
representing one of the five codes of Napoleon. The fundamental concepts of the Napoleonic
codification are freedom of contract and the assertion of ownership as an absolute right.
Under the influence of the French Revolution, a great number of countries (Italy,
Holland, Spain, Brazil, Belgium, and Egypt) took over the French Commercial Code as their
own.
In England and the United States the common law is used, establishing rules both for
commercial and non-commercial men.
Nowadays various regulatory schemes control the way commerce is conducted. Privacy
laws, safety laws, food and drug laws are some examples.
BASIC VOCABULARY
Advertising - the promotion of goods or services for sale through impersonal

media, such as radio or television;
- the business that specializes in creating such publicity
Marketing the science/process of interesting potential customers and clients in
products or services, it involves researching, promoting, selling and
distributing of goods/services
Bankruptcy the legal process in which a person or firm declares inability to pay
debts
Transaction the act of obtaining and paying for an item or service
Wares articles of manufacture considered as being for sale
Weight - a measure of the heaviness of an object; the amount anything
weighs;
- a system of units used to express the weight of a substance
Collapse - a sudden large decline of business or the prices of stocks;
- a sudden failure or breakdown
Tradesman a man engaged in trade, esp. a retail dealer
Autonomy - the right or state of self-government, esp. when limited;
- freedom to determine one's own actions, behaviour, etc.
Handicraftsma a man skilled in manual work
n
Assertion - a positive statement, usually made without an attempt at
furnishing evidence;
- the act of affirming or stating something
Ownership - the state or fact of being an owner;
- legal right of possession; proprietorship
Privacy law regulation or statute that protects a person’s right to be left alone, and
governs collection and release of his/her financial, medical, and other
personal information
Safety law A law passed by US Congress to prevent employees from being injured
or contracting diseases in the coarse of their employment

1. What is business law?
2. How did commercial law appear in ancient times?
3. What is barter? Is it still used?
4. How and where did the first markets appear?
5. Which are the first organizations of tradesmen in the Middle Ages?
6. Who was the leader of the medieval organizations of tradesmen?
7. When and where was the first Commercial Code adopted?
8. What are the fundamental principles of the first French Commercial Code?
9. Is there any difference between the Commercial Codes of the states?
2. Find common collocations (sometimes more than one solution is possible):
black business
money consultant
illegal circulation
commerce in bribe
advertising delivery
absolute market
goods owner
legal power
3. Fill in the blanks with the missing words:
1. Business law includes all ……………. of business, including advertising and marketing,
collections and bankruptcy, banking, contracts, ………………. instruments, transactions,
and trade ………… general.
2. A primitive form of exchange was the …………….. .
3. In Ancient Greece market supervisors had to ensure that the sellers sell ………….. and use
the city’s weights and …………… .
4. In Medieval times a corporation consisted of all ………….. men and …………………
from the same field and the leader was a ………………., helped around by ………………. .
5. In England the ………….. law is used to establish rules both for commercial and non-
commercial men.
4. Find as many synonyms as possible for the following words and make up
sentences with them:
wares
__________________________________________________________________________
bankruptcy
__________________________________________________________________________
distribution
__________________________________________________________________________
tradesman
__________________________________________________________________________
assertion
__________________________________________________________________________
ancientness
__________________________________________________________________________
to ensure
__________________________________________________________________________
uniform
__________________________________________________________________________
5. Consult your dictionary and explain the following terms:
 collection(s)
 producer
 consumer
6. Are these statements true or false? Correct the false ones.
T/F 1. Popular areas of business law include insurance, wills, estate planning, consumer and
creditor protection.
T/F 2. In ancient times, in order to satisfy their vital needs, people started to sell their
products
between themselves.
T/F 3. The Romans were the first who established the rules of traders’ activity.
T/F 4. The city agoranomos could restrict the sellers to volume of sales.
T/F 5. In order to defend their rights, tradesmen began to organize themselves in corporations
which gradually obtained the administrative, juridical and legislative autonomy.
T/F 6. The French Commercial Code was adopted in 1907.
T/F 7. Under the influence of the French Revolution, a big number of countries took over the
French Commercial Code as their own.
7. Translate the following words and word combinations:
regulile de securitate правила техники

безопасности
asigurare страхование
vital needs
(unitate de) măsură единица измерения, мера
vînzare продажа, сбыт
collapse
meşteşugar ремесленник
written law
ownership
food law
8. Match the terms with their definitions:
1. commerce a. exchange of merchandise; the buying and selling of

2. merchandise goods an services; trade
3. producer b. goods for sale, wares, commodities for commerce
4. product c. one who produces articles of consumption
5. consumer d. anything that can be offered to a market that might
6. circulation satisfy a want or need; thing produced by natural
7. exchange process or manufacture
8. contract e. an individual or a household that purchases and uses
9. edict goods/services generated within the economy
10. barter f. transmission, distribution of things, news, coins,
11. handicraftsman books
12. treaty g. act, process of exchanging of goods, prisoners of war,
13. agreement etc.
14. business law h. a legally binding exchange of promises or agreement
between parties that the law will enforce
i. order proclaimed by authority, decree
j. exchange of goods or immaterial things for other
goods
k. man skilled in a handicraft
l. an agreement under international law entered into by
actors in international law, namely states and
international organizations
m. promise of action, such as one made between people,
groups, businesses, or countries
n. the body of law which governs business and
commerce and is often considered to be a branch of
civil law and deals both with issues of private law and
public law
9. There are many different kinds of contract for different situations. Look at the
following paragraphs, and decide what kind of contract is being described or talked about.
loan agreement purchase agreement verbal contract car-hire agreement,

employment contract tenancy (rent) agreement franchise agreement
1. My cousin Bob said he was going to get rid of his computer and buy a new one. I said
that I needed a computer and suggested I bought his old one. Anyway, we agreed on a
price, I gave him a £50 deposit, and agreed to pay the balance in installments over the
next three months. I'm going round to collect the computer this evening.
2. The property is unfurnished, and the rent is £650, which has to be paid monthly in
arrears. Electricity, gas and phone bills are extra. There's a communal garden and a
communal parking area, for which I also have to pay a nominal maintenance fee. The
landlord is responsible for any repairs to the property. I've signed this agreement for 18
months.
3. We're opening our own branch in the town centre next week. The deal is simple: we get
the right to use the company's name, their trademark, their trade names and products
and wear their uniforms. They also provide our staff with all the necessary training,
give us managerial assistance and provide advertising materials. In return, we have to
meet specific requirements, such as quality of service, maintaining good customer
relations, and following the company's standard procedures. Oh, and of course to buy
all the products we sell from them.
4. The total amount you are borrowing from a bank is £9,000 at an APR (Annual
Percentage Rate) of 6.6%. Repaid in monthly over 3 years, this gives you a monthly
repayment figure of £275.46, totalling £9,916.56. If you wish to make an early
payment, the sum will be recalculated accordingly. As soon as you sign a form, your
funds will be released into your bank account.
5. This appointment is for a period of two years, following a 4-week probationary period.
Your salary package includes an annual gross salary of £32,000. Your hours of work
are 9 to 5 Monday to Friday, although you may be asked to work overtime during busy
periods. The company has its own medical and pension schemes which you may join.
6. The total cost is £2,870, which is payable in full before the goods can be delivered.
Alternatively, we can arrange credit terms. All goods are covered by the manufacturer's
warranty, which is valid for one year. If you are not happy with your merchandise, it
can be returned for an exchange or full refund (but please note that this is valid for 28
days only and we will need to see your cheque or other proof of purchase).
7. The rent of this car is £58 a day. This price includes unlimited kilometrage and fully
insurance. A refuelling service charge will be applied if you do not replace the fuel you
have used.
ELECTRONIC COMMERCE
signed parties back growing reduced

legislative encode agreement services online
Electronic commerce is already _____________ in importance and it will become even

more important in future years. It offers businesses the opportunity to reach a wider customer
base, enabling consumers and businesses to purchase goods and _____________ from a wide
range of suppliers. However, ____________ need to be assured that electronic contracts are as
effective as contracts made traditionally.
A number of ______________ instruments have now been adopted by the United
Nations (1996), EU (2000) and etc. to secure electronic contracts.
Nowadays electronic contracts and electronic signatures are just as legal as traditional
paper contracts ____________ in ink. An electronic contract is an _______________ created
and “signed” in electronic form – in other words, no paper or other hard copies are used. For
example, you write a contract on your computer and email it to a business partner, and the
business partner emails it __________ with an electronic signature indicating acceptance. An
e-contract can also be in the form of a “Click to Agree” contract, commonly used with
downloaded software.
The most secure method of signing contracts _____________ is the method known as
Public Key Infrastructure (PKI). PKI uses an algorithm to code and __________ online
documents. Only people who know the ‘key’ can have access to the information.
E-commerce is profitable for companies that conduct business online. This way they
save considerable sums of money. For example, one online company estimated that
eliminating paperwork fees ____________ costs up to $750.
11. Solve the crossword:
1. A person who is appointed to deal with financial or other matters on behalf of another
person.
2. A licence to trade using a brand name and paying a royalty for it.
3. An official who investigates complaints by the public against government departments
or other large organizations (especially banks, travel companies, and electricity, gas,
water and telecommunications providers).
4. Somebody who gives a guarantee.
5. A failure to carry out the terms of an agreement, a contract, etc.
6. One of the main conditions of a contract, where one party agrees to what is proposed
by the other party. Also the act of signing a bill of exchange to show that you agree to
pay for it.
7. The notifiable offence of telling lies when you have made an oath to say what is true in
court.
8. Somebody who has committed a civil wrong to somebody, entitling the victim to claim
damages.
9. A payment made by a person or company to cover the cost of damage or hardship
which he / she /it has caused.
10. Attempts by a third party to make the two sides in an argument agree.
11. A document in which a company acknowledges it owes a debt and gives the company's
assets as security.
12. The closing of a company and the selling of its assets.
13. Money claimed by a claimant from a defendant because of harm or damage done, or
money awarded by a court to a claimant as a result of harm suffered by the claimant
(Clue: this word has already appeared elsewhere in this exercise).
14. The legal responsibility for paying someone for loss or damage incurred.
15. A failure to give proper care to something, especially a duty or responsibility, with the
result that a person or property is harmed.
16. The good reputation of a business and its contacts with its customers (for example, the
name of the product it sells or its popular appeal to customers).
17. A court order telling a person or a company to stop doing something, or telling them
not to do it in the first place.
11. INTERNATIONAL LAW
Insofar as international law is observed, it provides us with stability

and order and with a means of predicting the behavior of those with
whom we have reciprocal legal obligations.
~ J. William Fulbright
International law can refer to:
• public international law;
• private international law or conflict of laws;
• the law of supranational organizations.
Public international law
Public international law is the totality of standards and principles that regulates the
relations between subjects of international law – states and intergovernmental organizations. It
is developed mainly through multilateral conventions, though custom can play an important
role too.
The fundamental principles of public international law contain general rules of
conduct, whose observance is essential to the development and co-operation between states, to
the maintaining of international peace and security.
Its modern corpus started to be developed in the middle of the 19th сentury. The two
World Wars, the League of Nations and other international organizations such as the
International Labour Organisation all contributed to accelerate this process and established
much of the foundations of modern public international law. After the failure of the Versailles
Treaty and World War II, the League of Nations was replaced by the United Nations, founded
under the UN Charter.
The basic principles of the Charter of the United Nations, adopted in 1970, are as
follow:
• not to resort to force and to threat by force;
• the settlement of international conflicts by peaceful means;
• not to intervene in internal affairs of one state;
• international co-operation;
• equality of rights for all the nations and the right of nations to self-
determination;
• sovereign equality of states;
• the good-faith accomplishment of assumed duties.
Three more principles were added at the Conference for Security and Cooperation in
Europe held at Helsinki in 1975:
• the inviolability of frontiers;
• the territorial integrity of states;
• the observance of human rights and fundamental liberties.
These fundamental principles are the peremptory norms of international law. The
states cannot depart from these principles in their agreements, in their local or bilateral
relations. This proves the importance that all the states confer to these principles in the
settlement of their relations.
There are some standards which aim at rights concerning all the states, but which are
not the object of their sovereignty: the liberty of seas, the interdiction of piracy. There are also
some humanitarian standards, considered by all states indispensable in order to guarantee the
respecting of the elementary rights of life and human dignity: the interdiction of slavery, the
rules and manners of the war.
Conflict of laws
Conflict of laws, or "private international law" in civil law jurisdictions, governs
conflicts between private persons, rather than states. The rise of international corporations
increases the number of disputes among a unified legal framework Increasing numbers of
businesses use commercial arbitration under the New York Convention 1958.
Supranational law
The European Union is the first and only example (so far) of a supranational legal
framework, where sovereign nations have joined their authority through a system of courts
and political institutions. It constitutes a new legal order in international law for the mutual
social and economic benefit of the member states.
BASIC VOCABULARY
Multilateral of or involving more than two nations or parties
Convention an international agreement second only to a treaty in formality
Custom a practice which by long-established usage has come to have the
force of law
Charter a formal document from the sovereign or state incorporating a
city, bank, college, etc., and specifying its purposes and rights
To resort (to) the use of something as a means, help, or recourse
Settlement - the determination of a dispute, etc., by mutual agreement
without resorting to legal proceedings;
- an adjustment or agreement reached in matters of finance,
business, etc
To intervene to interpose and become a party to a legal action between others,
esp. in order to protect one's interests
Self-determination - the power or ability to make a decision for oneself without
influence from outside;
- the right of a nation or people to determine its own form of
government without influence from outside
Duties a task or action that a person is bound to perform for moral or
legal reasons
Peremptory - admitting of no denial or contradiction; precluding debate;
- obligatory rather than permissive
Bilateral affecting or undertaken by two parties; mutual
Dignity the state or quality of being worthy of honour
Slavery the state or condition of being a slave; a civil relationship whereby
one person has absolute power over another and controls his life,
liberty, and fortune
1. What are the three types of international law?

2. Define public international law.
3. What are the subjects of public international law?
4. Which are the fundamental UN principles adopted in 1970?
5. Which are the added principles from the 1975 Helsinki Conference?
6. Which are the humanitarian standards related to international laws?
7. What does private international law deal with?
8. What is supranational law?
2. In the text find antonyms for the following words:
private war ancient external inequality

disagreement to diminish national
1. multilateral a. danger 1
2. fundamental b. to quicken 2
3. conduct c. many-sided 3
4. essential d. basic, primary 4
5. security e. method(s) 5
6. to accelerate f. safety 6
7. failure g. indispensable 7
8. force h. behaviour 8
9. threat i. dispute 9
10. means j. misfortune 10
11. to intervene k. obligation 11
12. frontier l. power 12
13. duty m. to interfere
13
14. to guarantee n. boundary
14
15. conflict o. to assure
15
In the …………… of the United Nations there are ………. principles:

1. not to resort to ……………. and to threat by ………………..
2. ……………… of rights and the right of nations to ……………….
3. sovereign …………….. of states
4. the good faith accomplishment of the ……………… duties
5. international ……………….
6. not to ……………. in internal affairs of one state
7. the settlement of international …………….. by peaceful means.
5. Fill in the gaps with the appropriate words from the table:
International law is not new. Nations (1)…….. always ……… political and economic
treaties with each other. In the Medieval Europe, the Canon Law of the Catholic Church had
(2)….. important role. Law Merchant regulated trade across political frontiers. In the fifteenth
century, the Church mediated between Spain and Portugal by dividing the world (3)……..
their respective areas of interest. The 1648 Treaty of Westphalia, which called for equal
treatment (4)……………….. of Protestants and Catholics, (5)………… be seen as an early
international human rights law. Nevertheless, most international law has been created in the
twentieth century. The League of Nations was set up after World War I (6)……………
disputes between nations. But it failed to stop the tension that led to World War II, partly
because some powerful countries did not join (USA) and others (7)………… when they
disagreed with its decisions (Germany, Japan). But it led to important international legislation
like the Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners of war and the 1951 Convention on
the Status of Refugees.
1 has made have made had been making

2 an the a
3 in to into
4 anywhere everywhere somewhere
5 can may must
6 to have regulated to have been regulated to regulate
7 left had left has left
6. Fill in the blanks with the derivatives of the words in brackets:
1. International organization is any institution drawing its membership from two or

more sovereign states and maintaining ………….. and facilities to promote
continuous activities by its members. (arrange)
2. The …………… of international organizations has been ………. a 20th century
phenomenon: about 90% of international organizations were organized in the
period 1900-1956. (create, most)
3. International organizations differ in function, ………………… and
…………………….. criteria. (member – 2 times)
4. Their aims are to preserve peace through conflict …………….. and better
international relations, promote international co-operation on matters such as
……………….. ………………., to promote human rights, to render
humanitarian aid, and to economic ………………. . (resolute, environment,
protect, develop)
5. Common types of international organizations include:
a) …………… organizations (this category includes the United Nations and its
……………. agencies, Interpol, World Trade Organization, and the
International Monetary Fund); (globe, special)
b) ……………. organizations – open to members from a particular region or
continent of the world. These categories include the Council of Europe,
European Union, Organization of American States and etc. (region)
c) …………….., linguistic, ethnic, ………….. or ……………. Organizations
– open to members based on the mentioned above links. Examples include the
Commonwealth of Nations, La Francophonie, Latin Union, Organization of
Islamic Conference. (culture, religion, history).
d) economic organizations – dedicated to free trade, the …………….. of trade
barriers (The World Trade Organization) and international development.
(reduce)
7. Correct grammar and spelling mistakes in the sentences given below.
1. Like presept of international morality, the rules of international law are of a normative
caracter; that is, they proscribe standards of conduct.
2. The basic rules of international customary law can be sumarized in the folowing
fundamental principals: sovereinty, recognition, concent, good faith, freedom of the
seas, international responsibility, and self-defense.
3. In time of war, permisible interference with enemy and neutral sheeping is regulated by
the rules of sea warfare and prise law.
8. Translate orally the following text:
Deţinutul a evadat din închisoare Преступник бежал из Центральной

centrală. Numele deţinutului este Nicolas тюрьмы. Имя преступника Николай
Aramis, anul naşterii 1965, brunet, un pic Армис, 1965 г. рождения, брюнет,
mai înalt decît statura medie (175 cm.), немного выше среднего роста (175 см.),
culoarea ochilor – căprui. Semne глаза карие. Особые приметы: шрам на
caracteristice: o cicatrice pe obrazul drept. правой щеке. Владеет английским и
Cunoaşte engleză şi italiană. A fost în итальянским языками. Был в США и
Statele Unite ale Americii şi Italia. Arestat Италии. Арестован за продажу оружия и
pentru vînzarea armelor şi drogurilor. Alte наркотиков. Остальные данные и фото
date şi poze sunt trimise cu poşta specială. отправлены спецпочтой.
9. Prepare a report (5-10 minutes) on one of the following topics:
 The Main Categories of Public International Law

 International Governmental and Non-Governmental Organizations.
SUPPLEMENTARY
READINGS
MAN CLEARED BY DNA FREE AFTER 27 YEARS
DALLAS, Texas (AP) -- A Dallas man who spent more than 27 years in prison for a
murder he didn't commit was freed Tuesday, after being imprisoned longer than any other
wrongfully convicted U.S. inmate* cleared by DNA testing.
James Lee Woodard stepped out of the courtroom and raised his arms to a throng* of
photographers.
"No words can express what a tragic story yours is," state District Judge Mark Stoltz told
Woodard at a brief hearing before his release.
Woodard -- cleared of the 1980 murder of his girlfriend -- became the 18th person in
Dallas County to be released from prison.
That's a figure unmatched by any county nationally, according to the Innocence Project, a
New York-based legal center that specializes in overturning wrongful convictions.
"I thank God for the existence of the Innocence Project," Woodard, 55, told the court.
"Without that, I wouldn't be here today. I would be wasting away in prison."
Woodard was sentenced to life in prison in July 1981 for the murder of a 21-year-old
Dallas woman found raped and strangled near the banks of the Trinity River. He was convicted
primarily on the basis of testimony from two eyewitnesses. One has since refused from her
testimony. As for the other, "we don't believe her testimony was accurate," Roetzel said.
Woodard has maintained his innocence throughout his time in prison. But after filing six
writs* with an appeals court, plus two requests for DNA testing, his pleas of innocence became
so repetitive and routine that "the courthouse doors were eventually closed to him and he was
labeled a writ abuser," Roetzel said.
"On the first day he was arrested, he told the world he was innocent ... and nobody
listened," Jeff Blackburn, chief counsel for the Innocence Project of Texas, said during
Tuesday's hearing. He even stopped attending his parole hearings because gaining his release
would have meant confessing to a crime he didn't do.
"It says a lot about your character that you were more interested in the truth than your
freedom," the judge told Woodard after making his ruling.
Woodard said his family was "small and scattered," although he pointed out a niece in the
courtroom. He said his biggest regret was not being with his mother when she died.
"I can tell you what I'd like to do first: breathe fresh, free air," Woodard said during a
news conference in the courtroom after the hearing. "I don't know what to expect. I haven't
been in Dallas since buses were blue."
*inmate – prisoner
*throng – crowd, great number
*write - claim
DNA CLEARED THEM, BUT THEY'LL NEVER FEEL FREE
DALLAS, Texas (CNN) -- Wiley Fountain is homeless just five years after he walked out
of prison an innocent man. He is one of the 17 men wrongfully convicted in Dallas County,
Texas, then cleared by DNA evidence.
He was one of the lucky few to receive financial compensation from the state, but the
$190,000 or so that made it into his pocket is long gone.
For a while, Fountain wandered the streets of Dallas, looking for aluminum cans to trade
in for cash. He earned the occasional meal by cleaning the parking lot of a restaurant. At night
he had nowhere to go.
Now he's nowhere to be found. Just as the headlines of his release vanished* from the
front pages of the newspaper, Fountain, 51, has disappeared. And so have his hopes for a fresh
start after spending 15 years in prison for an aggravated sexual assault he did not commit.
Clay Graham, a policy director with the Innocence Project of Texas, spends many days
worrying about Fountain. In March, he received a phone call with the news that Fountain had
been arrested on a theft charge and was sitting in the Dallas County jail. Graham rushed over to
talk with him.
"He said being homeless isn’t so bad," Graham recalled. "That's when I thought
something horrible must have happened to him in prison."
A few weeks later, Fountain was released from jail and disappeared.
Fountain's story doesn't come as a shock to Jeff Blackburn, one of the lead attorneys with
the Innocence Project of Texas, who represents many of the exonerated* former convicts.
Blackburn said these wrongly convicted men get "a double-whammy screw job." He said
there's little help from the government to transition back into society and they're still viewed as
criminals once they're out of prison.
"They don't have any services available to them, not even $100 and a cheap suit,"
Blackburn said.
What happens to these men in the months and years after their release is an often
overlooked story. These men find themselves starting life at middle age. CNN recently
interviewed 15 of the 17 men who have been exonerated by DNA evidence in Dallas County
since 2001.
Their stories are vastly different, but they do share common themes. There is little talk of
bitterness and anger. But there is great mistrust of the world around them and immense
frustration.
*to vanish – to disappear

*to exonerate – to discharge, release, free
PROGRAMMER GUILTY OF WIFE'S MURDER
OAKLAND, California (AP) -- A software programmer was convicted Monday of first-

degree murder for killing his wife, whom he affirms may be living elsewhere.
Hans Reiser, 44, bowed his head in court as the jury found him guilty of a crime that
carries a sentence of 25 years to life in prison.
Nina Reiser disappeared more than a year ago after dropping off* the couple's children at
Hans Reiser's home. Her body has never been found.
Reiser, known in programming circles as creator of the ReiserFS computer file system,
testified for several days in the six-month trial, often giving rambling* answers and getting
scolded by the judge for arguing with the prosecutor.
Tom Orloff, the district attorney for Alameda County, said the verdict "does justice for
Nina Reiser and her family."
Defense attorney Du Bois argued during the trial that there was no direct evidence linking
his client to Nina Reiser's disappearance and suggested the woman may be living in her native
Russia or may be the victim of foul play. But prosecutors argued the circumstantial evidence
against Reiser was strong: the two were involved in a bitter custody dispute, traces of her blood
were found in his home and car and witnesses testified she would never have left her children.
When Reiser was arrested in October 2006, he was carrying his passport and thousands of
dollars.
Du Bois portrayed Reiser as eccentric, but nonviolent, and said there were innocent
explanations for his behavior.
Reiser testified his wife left his house alive and he had nothing to do with her
disappearance.
Hora also said Reiser hated his estranged wife, and saw her as "the destroyer." "She
destroyed his marriage. She had an affair. He -- although it was never proved -- thinks she
embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars from him," Hora said during the trial.
Hora played jurors a tape of an interview with Rory outside of court in which the
prosecutor asked the boy if he knew where his mother was. Rory said he didn't, and that made
him feel sad.
"What did you like best about her?" Hora asked.
"Everything," said the boy.
*to drop off – to leave, to abandon

*rambling – incoherent, without logical connection
BRITISH WOMAN COULD FACE LAOS DEATH PENALTY
BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- A pregnant British woman facing possible execution in

Laos will go on trial this week, the country's foreign affairs ministry said Monday.
Samantha Orobator "is facing death for drug trafficking," said Clare Algar, executive
director of Reprieve, a London-based human rights group.
Orobator, 20, was arrested on August 5, said Khenthong Nuanthasing, the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs spokesman.
She was alleged to have been carrying just over half a kilogram (1.1 pounds) of heroin,
Reprieve lawyer Anna Morris told CNN by phone from Vientiane. "For that amount of heroin
the sentence is normally the death penalty," she said.
Orobator's mother Jane found out in January her daughter was pregnant -- more than four
months after she was arrested. Jane Orobator heard the news from the British Foreign Office,
which has been monitoring the case. She cannot believe her daughter was involved in drug
trafficking, and was surprised to learn she was in Laos, she said.
"I don't know what she was doing there”, she said. "The last time she spoke with me, she
said she was on holiday in London and she would come to see us in Dublin before returning to
the U.K. in July. "She is not the type of person who would be involved in drugs," she added.
Reprieve is worried about her health, especially given her pregnancy, Anna Morris said.
"She became pregnant in prison. We are concerned someone who finds herself in prison at
20 is subject to exploitation," she said.
The lawyer arrived there on Sunday and is hoping to visit Orobator on Tuesday, her boss
at Reprieve said. A British consul has also arrived in the country.
"I am the first British lawyer who has asked for access to her," Morris said. "She needs to
have a local lawyer appointed to her. We are pressing very hard for the local authorities to
appoint one."
She said it was normal in the Laotian justice system for a defendant to get a lawyer only
days before a trial.
The last execution in Laos was in 1990, the foreign affairs spokesman said.
There is no British Embassy in Laos. A British vice-consul arrived in the country this
weekend, the Foreign Office said Monday.
Rammell plans to raise the Orobator case with the Laotian deputy prime minister this
week, he said.
Samantha Orobator was born in Nigeria and moved to London with her family when she
was 8, her mother said.
GROWING UP IS EVEN HARDER WHEN MOM IS IN PRISON
(CNN) -- "Get yourself together." Mary Williams repeated those three words often to her
28-year-old daughter, who served three years in a Kansas prison for a 1988 armed robbery.
Williams never judged her daughter, Wanda Taylor, for the crime or her cocaine
addiction. She does not refer to the past. Instead, Williams looked to the future.
The future was her granddaughter, Donnie Belcher, a shy 4-year-old girl with curly hair
who cried when she visited her mother in jail for the first time.
The little girl's mother was locked up for three years, leaving her in the care of her
grandmother. "It was hard on me," said Belcher, now 25. "I never wanted to leave my mother."
A recent study by the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics found the number of imprisoned
mothers rose 131% from 1991 to 2007, while the number of fathers in prison increased 77
percent during the same period.
According to the Sentencing Project, a Washington-based nonprofit project, about 1.7
million children have a parent in prison.
"We should be alarmed," said Georgia Lerner, executive director at the Women's Prison
Association, a national nonprofit working with imprisoned women.
"Even when children have seen their mothers get arrested, they still want to be with their
parents," Lerner said. "They still love their mothers and want to be together."
While some critics argue that criminals make poor parents, experts said there is no doubt
that separation from a parent, particularly a mother, affects a child's psychological
development.
When a father is imprisoned, the mother typically cares for the children, said Danielle
Dallaire, a psychology professor at the College of William and Mary. But her research shows
that when a mother is imprisoned, the father often plays no role in raising the children.
A growing number of prisons are recognizing the need to preserve mother-child
relationships. They have staffed nurseries and day care centers to keep families connected.
Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, a maximum security women's prison in New York,
provi andes an annual summer camp run by volunteers. At camp, children can play basketball
and participate in other activities with their imprisoned mothers.
DEATHS AT THAI RESORT
SEATTLE, Washington (CNN) -- What started as a romantic Southeast Asia vacation

for a Seattle couple, ended with Ryan Kells preparing Friday to return from Bangkok carrying
the ashes of his bride to give to her family in California.
"It's such a shock," Robert St. Onge told CNN about the death of his sister, Jill, who had
been traveling with the man she planned to marry. "There was no possibility to hear last words
or even see her because she has already been cremated."
The couple had been visiting Thailand at the end of a three-month journey during which
the two had become engaged.
On April 26 in her online journal, the 27-year-old woman described the surroundings near
where the Leonardo Dicaprio movie, "The Beach," was filmed.
"Hey, hey! We're in koh phi phi right now. It's off the west coast of Thailand about a 2
hour boat ride from krabi. So amazing... just drinking, eating and living so cheaply. Food,
drink, good books, sun and warm waters... What else do you need?", St. Onge wrote in her
blog.
But on May 2, Kells found St. Onge, who had told him earlier that she had not been
feeling well, vomiting* in their room at the Laleena guesthouse on Phi Phi island. He put her
into a shopping cart and searched for help.
"She couldn't breathe. She was vomiting," Kells, 31, told CNN. "I tried to run her to a
hospital but she died, maybe, 12 hours of being sick."
Robert St. Onge said his sister had been healthy and that her sudden death is a mystery.
Adding to the mystery is the fact that another tourist, a 22-year-old Norwegian woman,
died at the same resort the same weekend, the U.S. Embassy in Thailand said.
The manager of the Laleena resourt has said in published reports that he believes the
women's deaths came from drinking heavily.
Norwegian media reported that the Norweigan woman could have been a victim of food
poisoning.
In Internet postings on a Web site created to update friends and family on the tragedy,
Kells also described feeling ill at the hotel and said that he believed something in their room
had made the couple sick. Kells also said he had spent less time in their room than his bride.
NAZI SUSPECT DEMJANJUK ARRIVES IN GERMANY
(CNN) -- Germany's Jewish community Tuesday welcomed the deportation from the U.S.
of a Nazi war crimes suspect who is charged with the murder of about 29,000 civilians at a
death camp during the World War II.
Demjanjuk was taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital after landing at Munich airport.
An ambulance was also used to take the 89-year-old to a plane at airport in Cleveland, Ohio on
Monday evening.
Demjanjuk, a native Ukranian who has long claimed is wanted in Germany for his alleged
role in the murder of about 29,000 civilians at Sobibor, a Nazi death camp in Poland.
"All the living Nazi war criminals should know that there can be no mercy for them,
regardless of their age," said Knobloch president of the Central Council of Jews.
"They must answer for their inhumane actions because there is no statute of limitations for
crimes against humanity."
Demjanjuk's deportation closes a chapter in one of the longest-running cases of an alleged
Holocaust criminal in history.
Demjanjuk's lawyers had asked the high court to consider their claims that he was too ill
to be sent overseas. They also raised human rights and other legal issues in their last-minute
appeal.
U.S. immigration officers previously entered Demjanjuk's home on April 14, and carried
him out in his wheelchair to a waiting car. He was held for a few hours and then returned to his
residence after a federal appeals court gave verdict in his favor.
He was once accused by the United States and Israel of being a notoriously brutal S.S.
guard at the Treblinka camp known as "Ivan the Terrible." After appeals, that allegation was
eventually dropped by both countries, but later other accusations were made against him.
IRAQI FAMILY SURVIVORS: WE WISH U.S. SOLDIERS HAD ALSO KILLED
US
PADUCAH, Kentucky (CNN) -- Surviving members of an Iraqi family are still in horror
after murder raid committed by U.S. soldiers.
They gave evidence on in the trial; one of the soldiers has been convicted and can face the
death penalty. Testimony is to continue Tuesday.
On Monday, family members said their lives have been ruined and it would be better if
the soldiers had also killed them.
Defendant Steven Green has been identified as the leader in the murder raid. He was
convicted last week in U.S. District Court in Kentucky of murder, rape and conspiracy.
He and other soldiers illegally entered the home of an Iraqi family in 2006, raped a 14-
year-old girl, killed her and her family, and set the home afire, authorities said.
Ameena Al-Janabi testified through a translator Monday that her two grandsons were the
first to arrive home and see that their family members had been killed.
The two boys were great students, but have since refused to attend school, the woman
said.
They "are lost, as if they are not living in this life," Janabi said.
Abid Abu Farras, a cousin, also spoke about the effect of the murders on the surviving
brothers.
Their "futures are destroyed," Farras said. "If they had died with their family, they would
have been better off."
The prosecution rested after four witnesses.
Four other former soldiers are in prison for their roles in the crimes and the cover-up that
followed.
They received sentences ranging from 27 months to 110 years -- with the possibility of
parole in 10 years in the most severe cases. They were convicted and sentenced in a military
court. Green might become the first former U.S. soldier to face the death penalty for war crimes
before a civilian court.
When the killings became public in 2006, some Iraqi officials demanded that American
soldiers accused of crimes against civilians face prosecution in Iraqi courts.
AUSTRIA STUNNED BY SEX ABUSE CASE
The news that a man may have imprisoned his daughter in a cellar for 24 years and
fathered her seven children has been described as one of the worst cases in Austria's
criminal history.
Josef Fritzl, aged 73, is in police custody and is still being questioned. Police say he has
confessed to the alleged crimes and that his confession is supported by DNA evidence.
They do not believe anyone else was involved in his daughter's incarceration.
The picture that is beginning to emerge is of a man who led a double life. In public he
appeared to be a respectable member of the community, living in Amstetten with his wife
Rosemarie, with whom he had seven grown-up children.
But the results of DNA tests announced on Tuesday confirm he had a second, secret
family with his daughter Elisabeth, whom police say he lured into a cellar, aged 18, in 1984
and repeatedly abused.
She is believed to have borne him seven children, three of whom he and Rosemarie
adopted. Three children remained in the cellar with their mother.
Police say Mr Fritzl has also confessed to burning the body of a seventh child shortly after
it died in infancy.
'Very intelligent'
Local social services told the Austrian Press Agency that there appeared to be nothing
suspicious about the family and that Mr Fritzl managed to explain "very plausibly" how three
of his infant grandchildren had turned up on his doorstep.
Amstetten's local governor, Hans-Heinz Lenze, told Austria's public broadcaster ORF that
the children had had regular visits from social workers, who never heard any complaints or
noticed anything to arouse their suspicions.
He said they were well-behaved at school and fitted in well with their classmates.
Mr Lenze said that initially the disappearance of Elisabeth had given the social services
cause for concern, but that their investigations had not revealed any major discrepancies with
Mr Fritzl's story that she had run away to join a sect.
Mr Lenze told a news conference on Tuesday that neither Mr Fritzl nor his wife had any
criminal convictions at the time of the first adoption in 1994.
A qualified electrician, the police described Mr Fritzl as "a very intelligent man" who had
put electric locks on the cellar rooms which could only be opened with a special code.
Mr Fritzl was allegedly able to supply his secret family with clothes and food without
arousing suspicion by shopping outside of Amstetten.
Police say he had an excuse to travel away from home as he owned some land and could
shop in other towns and deliver goods to the cellar dungeon in the evening, unnoticed.
BAILIFFS KILL MAN FIRING GUN IN FLORIDA COURTHOUSE
ST. PETERSBURG, Florida (AP) -- A man who was supposed to be returning divorce
papers at a courthouse pulled out a gun instead Wednesday, opening fire in the lobby before
two bailiffs* fatally shot him.
Several people were in the lobby at the time, but only one – a bailiff, who was shot in the
shoulder -- was injured. He was treated and released from a hospital.
Glen Lee Powell, 30, entered the courthouse wearing a backpack shortly after 1 p.m. and
approached a security checkpoint. A deputy ordered him to remove the pack and place it on a
conveyor belt, but instead, he threw it on the ground and opened fire with a semiautomatic
handgun, Pinellas County Sheriff's Sgt. Jim Bordner said.
Deputies B.J. Lyons and Marvin Glover returned fire, seriously wounding Powell, who
later died at a St. Petersburg hospital. Lyons, a 58-year-old firearms instructor, was wounded.
Detectives were working to determine a motive, Bordner said. He said Powell's wife is
safe and had been notified of his death.
It is known that Powell hadn't been upset about the divorce.
The courthouse was closed after the shooting and is expected to resume normal business
Thursday.
"It's unfortunate that a life was lost, but the public, employees, judges and others in [the]
courthouse were properly protected," said Robert Morris, the chief judge of Florida's Sixth
Judicial Circuit.
Cassandra Grady, 40, and her 15-year-old daughter went to the courthouse Wednesday for
a hearing and saw the man before the shooting. Grady told the St. Petersburg Times that the
man asked her where he could file a petition, and that she saw a gun handle in his backpack.
"I told my daughter, 'Run for your life.' Then I started running. I was trying to run to warn
them. He started shooting. I heard a round of shots: pop-pop-pop, pop-pop-pop."
Grady was shocked but grateful. "I just want to say, 'Thank you, God.' It could have been
us."
* bailiff - officer of justice

SUSPECTED PEDOPHILE HELD AFTER GLOBAL MANHUNT
(CNN) -- A suspected pedophile who became the subject of an international manhunt

earlier this week after an appeal from Interpol has been detained in the United States, a
spokesman for the global police agency told CNN Thursday.
Wayne Nelson Corliss, 57, was arrested at his apartment in Union City, New Jersey,
about midnight Thursday by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, Interpol said
in a written statement.
Interpol on Tuesday announced it was attempting to identify the man, who was featured in
100 photographs sexually abusing at least three boys between the ages of 6 and 10, it said.
The images came to light in 2006, when Norwegian authorities discovered them in the
possession of a man they arrested. They were believed to have been taken in Southeast Asia.
Interpol posted six pictures of the suspect on its Web site.
"Two days ago, this man's nationality, identity and location were totally unknown,"
Interpol Secretary General Ronald K. Noble said.
"All we had to go by were a series of graphic photographs in which the suspect was seen
sexually abusing young children and our confidence that the public and police worldwide
would once again respond to Interpol's call for assistance.
"That two days later the primary suspect is now in custody is an outstanding achievement
and credit to the citizens, media and law enforcement worldwide who responded to Interpol's
call."
The organization, which facilitates global cooperation among police agencies, said
Thursday it received nearly 250,000 visits to its Web site within the first 24 hours after its
appeal was launched -- more than 10 times the daily average.
Such tactics have proved successful for Interpol in the past.
Last October, it disseminated pictures of another man whose face appeared in more than
200 images of sex acts with children, thought to have been taken in Vietnam and Cambodia.
Ten days later, Christopher Paul Neil, a 32-year-old Canadian who had been working as
an English-language teacher in South Korea, was arrested in Thailand and charged with child
abuse after police managed to reverse the photo-masking process.
After the success of that operation, Interpol's general assembly approved a resolution
allowing Interpol to seek public help in child sex abuse investigations.
BABY-SNATCHING CASE ENDS IN PLEA DEAL
UNION, Missouri (AP) -- A woman who assaulted a young mother and kidnapped her
newborn entered into a plea deal Friday, and the prosecutor revealed additional details of the
2006 attack.
Shannon Torrez, 38, of Lonedell, Missouri, is accused of child kidnapping, armed
criminal action and first-degree assault.
Under the arrangement, she does not admit guilt but there is sufficient evidence for a
guilty verdict. Prosecutors are seeking a 30-year prison sentence. Sentencing testimony is set to
begin May 27.
Abby Woods was kidnapped September 15, 2006. Authorities said the baby's mother,
Stephenie Ochsenbine, then 21, allowed Torrez into the family home, where Abby lived along
with her mother, her father, James Woods, and her brother, Connor.
The two women lived just a few miles apart in the rural area about 45 miles southwest of
St. Louis but did not know each other. Franklin County prosecutor Robert Parks said Friday
that Torrez knocked at Ochsenbine's door, said her car broke down and asked to use the phone.
Once inside, she asked to use the bathroom, then came out pointing a gun at Ochsenbine and
said she was taking the baby.
When Ochsenbine got between Torrez and Abby, Torrez threw her down and stabbed her
in the back, Parks said.
Connor, then 1 year old, began to cry, and Torrez told Ochsenbine to make the child be
quiet or she would hurt him, Parks said. Torrez then forced Ochsenbine to hold Connor as she
tied them to a chair, Parks said.
Moments later, Ochsenbine managed to free herself. Torrez struck her in the head,
knocking her to the floor, Parks said. Torrez then choked Ochsenbine until she passed out.
Ochsenbine awoke to find herself and Connor tied up in the bathroom, with Abby gone.
Five days after the kidnapping, Torrez's sister-in-law alerted police. The baby was
unharmed.
Officers found a gun wrapped in a shirt at Shannon Torrez's home. DNA tests showed that
blood on the shirt and the gun were from Ochsenbine.
Torrez's attorney said his client's mental state will be the focus of the sentencing hearing.
He declined to elaborate but said Torrez had delivered a stillborn baby just before the
kidnapping.
Ochsenbine sat in the front row of the courtroom Friday and showed little emotion.
Woods kept his arm around her throughout the hearing, and the family declined to comment
later.
Parks described Abby as "a typical 2-year-old and doing really well."
WOMAN PLEADS GUILTY TO KILLING BIGAMIST SPOUSE
NORRISTOWN, Pennsylvania -- A woman pleaded guilty Friday to third-degree

murder for killing her bigamist husband just hours before he was to leave for Morocco to visit
his second wife.
Myra Morton, 48, was upset about the new marriage and her husband's plans to have
children with the younger woman, authorities have said. She shot her 47-year-old husband,
Jereleigh Morton, twice in the head in August while he slept.
She faces from five to 20 years in prison, said defense lawyer Brian McMonagle.
"I don't think there's any question in anybody's mind that the act was intentional,"
McMonagle said. "We have always maintained that it was based on a lot of passion, and it was
caused by the emotional state that she was going through."
Jereleigh Morton met his second wife, 37-year-old Zahra Toural, last year on the Internet,
prosecutors said. In keeping with Muslim custom, Myra Morton traveled to Morocco to bless
the marriage.
Her husband allegedly said that if she didn't like it, she should get a divorce.
The Mortons had converted to Islam about 20 years ago.
As Myra Morton's resentment about the second marriage grew, she wrote the U.S. State
Department a letter in April 2007 in which she said Toural had terrorist ties. She hoped the
letter would keep Toural away from the U.S., authorities have said.
Toural last month responded with a defamation suit against Myra Morton.
Myra Morton spent about 20 years working at Temple University as a secretary before she
and her husband received a reported $8 million medical settlement in 2005 over the death of a
teenage daughter. They moved with their surviving daughter from a North Philadelphia row
house to a $1 million house in the suburbs.
"All she (Morton) cares about are that her daughter and her granddaughter get their
inheritance, and are provided for," McMonagle said. "That is always a concern, particularly
when you have so many hands reaching for this money."
SMOKER TRIED TO OPEN PLANE DOOR
A French woman has admitted attempting to open airplane door mid-flight so that she
could smoke a cigarette. The woman was arrested when the plane landed in Australia.
Sandrine Helene Sellies, 34, who has a fear of flying, had drunk alcohol and taken
sleeping tablets ahead of the flight from Hong Kong to Brisbane. She was seen on the Cathay
Pacific plane walking towards a door with an unlit cigarette and a lighter. She then began
tampering with the emergency exit until she was stopped by a flight attendant.
Defence lawyer Helen Shilton said her client had no memory of what had happened on
the flight on Saturday, and that she had a history of sleepwalking. She pleaded guilty to
endangering the safety of an aircraft at Brisbane Magistrates Court and was given a 12-month
A$1,000 (£429) good behaviour bond - she will forfeit the money if she commits another
offence. The French tourist was at the start of a three-week holiday in Australia with her
husband.
DUBAI COURT JAILS BOY'S HIV RAPIST
DUBAI (CNN) -- A court in Dubai sentenced two men Wednesday to 15 years in prison
for the rape and kidnapping of a 15-year-old French boy.
The boy's mother, Veronique Robert, was visibly upset after the sentence was read and
promised to appeal.
Robert, a French journalist, brought the case to the media's attention in recent months in
an effort to shed light on what she deemed to be injustices in the pro-Western emirate of Dubai.
She refrained from asking the death penalty for her son's attackers, but said she hoped the
sentence would be much longer.
A spokesman for the Dubai government, Habib al Mulla, told CNN the sentence was in
accordance with international standards and was not lenient.
"Today's verdict has proven that the system is efficient and is fair to all parties involved,"
al Mulla said.
The case began in July, when the two men, 36 and 18, kidnapped and raped the French
teenager frightining with a knife.
Al Mulla said police action was swift and arrests were made within 24 hours.
But Robert has said the case was botched from the start, beginning with her son's
examination by a doctor who said her son was gay. Homosexuality in Dubai is illegal, and the
teen could have faced as much as a year in prison.
Robert's son has since returned to France and was not in court for Wednesday's
sentencing.
Robert has also said Dubai authorities repeatedly hided evidence -- confirmed in court
papers -- that one of the attackers was HIV-positive. Robert said her son, who is still awaiting
test results to find out whether he has the virus, could have gotten treatment much sooner had
they known.
Dubai authorities deny any evidence was hiden.
The mother has already filed suit in courts in Paris and Geneva, Switzerland seeking
compensation from Sheikh Khalifa, president of the United Arab Emirates, and the prime
minister and vice president of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed al Maktoum.
She is also suing others, including the Dubai police chief. Robert started a Web site over
the summer, boycottdubai.com, demanding better treatment for children who suffer sexual
assault there.
At a press conference last month, she proclaimed, "We are here because I just would like
first justice for my son; and second for every girl and boy who was raped and even had no
chance to speak."
Robert said she will drop all her pending cases if the government sets up rape clinics,
recognizes the status of rape victims, and takes precautions after rape against sexually-
transmitted diseases. In the wake of Wednesday's verdict, Robert said a Dubai government
official told her the emirate plans to open its first rape clinic, which she said was a small
victory
LUCKY LUCIANO
Byname of Charles Luciano, original name Salvatore Lucania
Lucky Luciano (born Nov. 11, 1896, Lercara Friddi, Sicily, Italy—died Jan. 26, 1962,
Capodicino Airport, Naples) the most powerful chief of American organized crime in the early
1930s and a major influence even from prison, 1936–45, and after deportation to Italy in 1946.
Luciano emigrated with his parents from Sicily to New York City in 1906 and, at the age
of 10, was already involved in mugging, shoplifting, and extortion; in 1916 he spent six months
in jail for selling heroin. Out of jail, he teamed up with Frank Costello and Meyer Lansky and
other young gangsters; he earned his nickname “Lucky” for success at evading arrest and
winning craps games.
In 1920 he joined the ranks of New York's rising crime boss, Joe Masseria, and by 1925
had become Masseria's chief lieutenant, directing bootlegging, prostitution, narcotics
distribution, and other rackets. In October 1929 he became the rare gangster to survive a “one-
way ride”; he was abducted by four men in a car, beaten, stabbed repeatedly with an ice pick,
had his throat slit from ear to ear, and was left for dead on a Staten Island beach—but survived.
He never named his abductors. Soon after, he changed his name to Luciano.
The bloody gang war of 1930–31 between Masseria and rival boss Salvatore Maranzano
was anathema to Luciano and other young racketeers who decried the publicity and loss of
business, money, and efficiency. On April 15, 1931, Luciano lured Masseria to a Coney Island
restaurant and had him assassinated by four loyalists, Vito Genovese, Albert Anastasia, Joe
Adonis, and Bugsy Siegel. Six months later, on September 10, he had Maranzano murdered by
four Jewish gunmen loaned by Meyer Lansky. Luciano had carefully nurtured his contacts with
all the young powers in gangdom and had become capo di tutti capi (“boss of all the bosses”),
without ever accepting or claiming the title. By 1934 he and the leaders of other crime
“families” had developed the national crime syndicate or cartel.
Then, in 1935, New York special prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey bore down on Luciano,
gathering evidence of his brothel and call-girl empire and related extortion. In 1936 he was
indicted, tried, and convicted and was sentenced to Clinton Prison at Dannemora, N.Y., for a
30- to 50-year term. From his cell Luciano continued to rule and issue orders. In 1942, after the
luxury line “Normandie” blew up in New York Harbor, Navy intelligence sought Luciano's
help in tightening waterfront security. Luciano gave the orders; sabotage on the docks ended;
and in 1946 his sentence was commuted and he was deported to Italy, where he settled in
Rome. In 1947 he moved to Cuba, to which all the syndicate heads came to pay homage and
cash. But the pressure of public opinion and the U.S. narcotics bureau forced the embarrassed
Cuban regime to deport him.
He ended up in Naples, where he continued to direct the drug traffic into the United States
and the smuggling of aliens to America. He died of a heart attack in Naples in 1962 and was
buried in St. John's Cathedral Cemetery, Queens, N.Y.
MATA HARI:
A DUTCH DANCER ACCUSED OF SPYING
In the fall of 1917, a French military court sentenced the Dutch dancer known as Mata
Hari to death. Charged with spying for the German Reich, she was executed on October 15, in
Vincennes.
Was she guilty or not? While that question has dominated traditional historical debate, it
seems less significant than the fact that the cultural image-makers, catering to male fantasies,
turned Mata Hari into a legendary figure that fulfilled the stereotype of woman as evil
temptress
The daughter of a prosperous hatter, she attended a teachers' college in Leiden. In 1895
she married an officer of Scottish origin, Captain Campbell MacLeod, and from 1897 to 1902
they lived in Java and Sumatra. The couple returned to Europe but later separated, and she
began to dance professionally in Paris (1905) under the name of Lady MacLeod. She soon
called herself Mata Hari, said to be a Malay expression for the sun (literally, “eye of the day”).
Tall, extremely attractive, superficially acquainted with East Indian dances, and willing to
appear virtually nude in public, she was an instant success in Paris and other large cities.
Throughout her life she had numerous lovers, many of them military officers. The facts
regarding her espionage activities remain obscure. Because of her international background –
and probably also due to her numerous affairs with military officers – she began to associate
with various secret services on both sides. On 13 February, 1917, Mata Hari was arrested in her
room at the Hotel Plaza Athénée in Paris. She was put on trial, accused of spying for Germany
and consequently causing the deaths of at least 50,000 soldiers.
She was held in Saint-Lazar prison while awaiting trial and interrogated no less than
seventeen times before facing an actual military jury. The prison had no baths so the only way
she could clean herself was in a small bowl that was sometimes brought to her cell. The
institution itself was generally filthy, something that greatly distressed the fastidious Mata Hari.
She was isolated from other prisoners. This may have been for her own protection since her
fellow inmates may well have wanted to exact their own justice upon a German spy but it
grated on the sensibilities of the extroverted suspect. Since her arrest was kept secret from the
public, she was not allowed to write to anyone. She was permitted no clean changes of clothing
and allowed only 15 minutes a day for solitary exercise outside of her cell.
Mata Hari wrote protests against the severe conditions of her confinement. In one such
missive she wrote, "You have made me suffer too much. I am completely mad. I beg of you,
put an end to this. I am a woman. I cannot support [what is] above my strength." In another she
pleaded, "I beg of you, stop making me suffer in this prison. I am so weakened by this system
and the cell is driving me mad. I have not done any espionage in France . . . Let me have
provisional liberty. Don’t torture me here." She wrote in vain.
Finally she was found guilty and was executed by firing squad on 15 October, 1917, at the
age of 41.
During World War I, her frequent traveling across international borders and her varied
companions caused several countries to wonder if she was a spy or even a double-agent. Many
people, who met her, say that she was sociable but just not smart enough to pull off such a feat.
ANDREI CHIKATILO: THE ROSTOV RIPPER
Andrei Chikatilo was one of the world's most prolific and barbaric serial killers.
Although he was extremely tall and attractive, Chikatilo was always shy with girls and
considered himself impotent. However, in 1963 his younger sister Tatiana introduced him to a
friend of hers named Faina. Things clicked, and he and Faina married that same year. They had
two children, a daughter Ludmila in 1965 and a son Yuri in 1969. They lived an outwardly
normal family life.
Chikatilo graduated from Rostov University and became a teacher for a brief time, but he
was eventually caught molesting some students, which led to his expulsion from the profession.
By the end of 1978 Chikatilo had murdered his first victim, Lena Zakotnova, in Shankty,
Russia. He didn't kill again for three years, but over the next nine years he tortured, murdered
and cannibalized at least 51 more women and children. Russian authorities at first refused to
believe that a serial killer could operate in their midst -- that sort of thing only occurred in
degenerate capitalist societies -- but Chikatilo's victims began turning up so often and in so
many places that the authorities finally were forced to admit that a monster was indeed loose
among them. A task force consisting of the best homicide detectives in the country was
assigned to hunt down and capture the killer (although they had no idea it was Chikatilo). He
was finally captured on November 20, 1990, when a policeman noticed him acting suspiciously
at a railroad station, detained him, and further investigation revealed that he had just committed
three murders. Chikatilo confessed to 55 killings -- although due to the initial indifference and
incompetence of the authorities it's been estimated that he likely committed at least twice that
many before he was finally caught -- but was charged with only 53.
His trial opened on April 14, 1992, with victims' relatives screaming for retribution.
Chikatilo acted like a raving maniac throughout the trial, rolling his eyes, moving back and
forth, contorting his face and hurling curses at spectators and the judge, among others. On
October 14, 1992, Andrei Chikatilo was convicted of 52 murders -- one charge was dropped for
lack of evidence -- and five counts of child molestation. The next day he was given 52 death
sentences and taken to Novocherkassk Prison in the Rostov-on-Don region of Russia. Sixteen
months later, on February 14, 1994, his death sentence was carried out in the manner
prescribed by Russian law -- a single bullet to the back of the head.
THE FORGER WHO FOOLED THE WORLD
HANS VAN MEEGEREN
Forgers, by nature, prefer anonymity and therefore are rarely remembered. An exception
is Van Meegeren (1889-1947). Van Meegeren's story is absolutely unique and may be justly
considered the most dramatic art scam of the 20th c.
His life of artistic crime began after his work was demeaned by art critics. Motivated by
revenge, he set out to embarrass his detractors by "putting one over" on them. His forgeries
were so good that his "Vermeers" were accepted as genuine.
In May 1945 Van Meegeren was arrested, charged with collaborating with the enemy and
imprisoned. His name had been traced to the sale made during the second world war of what
was then believed to be an authentic Vermeer to Nazi Field-Marshal Hermann Goering. Shortly
after, to general disbelief, Van Meegeren came up with a very original defense against the
accusation of collaboration, then punishable by death. He claimed that the painting, The
Woman Taken in Adultery, was not a Vermeer but rather a forgery by his own hand. Moreover,
since he had traded the false Vermeer for 200 original Dutch paintings seized by Goering in the
beginning of the war, Van Meegeren believed that he was in fact a national hero rather than a
Nazi collaborator. He also claimed to have painted five other "Vermeer's," as well as two
"Pieter de Hoogh's" all of which had surfaced on the art market since 1937.
In 1947 the trial took place and in order to demonstrate his case it was arranged that,
before the court under police guard, he would paint another "Vermeer," Jesus among the
Doctors, using the materials and techniques he had used for the other forgeries. During the
incredible two year trial Van Meegeren had confessed that "spurred by the disappointment of
receiving no acknowledgements from artists and critics....I determined to prove my worth as a
painter by making a perfect 17th century canvas."
At the end of the trial collaboration charges were changed to forgery and Van Meegeren
was condemned to one year in confinement. Van Meegeren was actually tickled to get only one
year in jail. "Two years," he told a reporter "is the maximum punishment for such a thing. I
know because I looked it up in our laws twelve years ago, before I started all this. But sir, I'm
sure about one thing: if I die in jail they will just forget all about it. My paintings will become
original Vermeers once more. I produced them not for money but for art's sake." At the age of
58, he fell ill due to years of drug and alcohol abuse and died of a heart attack in prison. In
1950 household effects were auctioned in his house at 321 Keizersgracht in Amsterdam.
n all he made more that seven million guilders, about $2 million then and roughly about
twenty times that amount today. In his last years Van Meegeren lived the high life and had
purchased a number of houses until he was caught.
What van Meegeren did was morally, ethically and legally wrong, but he certainly
managed to find a way to achieve lasting fame as a painter.
CESARE LOMBROSO:
AN ITALIAN PHYSICIAN AND CRIMINOLOGIST
Cesare Lombroso, 1835-1909, was an Italian criminologist and physician. In 1876 he

published a pamphlet setting forth his theory of the origin of criminal traits. In the study, later
enlarged into the famous L'uomo delinquente he compared anthropological measurements and
developed the concept of the atavistic, or born, criminal.
Lombroso popularized the notion of the born criminal through biological determinism,
claiming that criminals have particular physiognomic attributes or deformities. Physiognomy
attempts to estimate character and personality traits from physical features of the face or the
body. Whereas most individuals evolve, the violent criminal had devolved, and therefore
criminals were societal or evolutionary regressions. If criminality was inherited, then the born
criminal could be distinguished by physical atavistic stigmata, such as:
• large jaws, forward projection of jaw, low sloping foreheads
• high cheekbones, flattened or upturned nose
• handle-shaped ears
• large chins, very prominent in appearance
• hawk-like noses or fleshy lips
• hard shifty eyes, scanty beard or baldness
• insensitivity to pain, long arms.
He attempted to construct a purported scientific methodology in order to predict criminal
behavior and isolate individuals capable of the most violent types of criminal activity.
Lombroso advocated the study of individuals using measurements and statistical methods in
compiling anthropological, social, and economic data . Along with the natural origin of the
crime and its social consequences, various remedies can then be provided to the criminal,
which would offer the greatest effects.
Lombroso claimed that the modern criminal was the savage throwback of "degeneration".
Lombroso concluded that skull and facial features were clues to genetic criminality. These
features could be measured with craniometers and calipers, and the measurements analyzed by
quantitative research. Lombroso assumed that whites were superior to non-whites by heredity,
and that Africans were the first human beings that evolved upwards and positively to yellow
then white. Racial development was signified by social progress from primitive to modern,
"only we white people have reached the ultimate symmetry of bodily form" Lombroso stated in
1871
Lombroso's studies of female criminality began with measurements of females' skulls and
photographs in his search for "atavism". He found that female criminals were rare and showed
few signs of "degeneration" because they had “evolved less than men due to the inactive nature
of their lives”. He asserted that women were lower on the evolutionary scale, more childlike,
and less intelligent. Lombroso argued it was the females' natural passivity that withheld them
from breaking the law, as they lacked the intelligence and initiative to become criminal.
Further, women who commit crimes had different physical characteristics, such as excessive
body hair, wrinkles, and an abnormal cranium.
However, Lombroso is still credited with turning attention from the legalistic study of
crime to the scientific study of the criminal. Lombroso advocated humane treatment of
criminals and limitations on the use of the death penalty.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
1. Bradgate, R.; White, F. Commercial Law. USA: Oxford University Press, 2006.
1000 p.
2. Constitution of the Republic of Moldova, adopted on July 29, 1994. 35 p.
3. Martin, A. Oxford Dictionary of Law. Oxford University Press. 552 p.
4. Oprea, N. Curs de limba engleză pentru studenţii facultăţilor cu profil juridic. Buc.:
Oscar Print, 1999. 288 p.
5. Tuculescu, M. English for Legal Purposes. Part I. Bucharest: Cavallioti, 2004.197 p.
6. Tuculescu, M.; Chefneux, G. English for Legal Purposes. Part II. Bucharest:
Cavallioti, 2004. 208 p.
7. Wyatt, R. Check Your English Vocabulary on Law. London: A&C Black, 2007. 81 p.
8. Алимов, В.В., Юридический перевод. Практический курс. Москва: ЛКИ, 2007.
159 с.
9. Гуманова, Ю.Л.; Королёва-Мак-Ари В.А. Just English. Английский для
юристов. Москва: Кнорус, 2009. 255 с.
10. Павлова, Е.К.; Шишкина, Т.Н. Branches of Law. Английский язык для юристов.
Ростов-на-Дону: Феникс, 2002. 316 с.
11. Шевелёва, С.А. English for Lawyers. Москва: ЮНИТИ, 2000. 493 с.
INTERNET AND ELECTRONIC SOURCES:
1. ABBY LINGVO 12
2. www.bbc.com
3. www.biography.com/notorious/crimefiles
4. www.cnn.com/crime
5. www.onestopenglish.com
6. www.wikipedia.org

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FREE INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF MOLDOVA

INSTITUTE OF LINGUISTIC AND INTERCULTURAL STUDIES

A Guide to Legal English

Natalia URSUL, Olga DIMO

A Guide to Legal English

Recomandat pentru publicare de către Senatul ULIM

Descrierea CIP a Camerei Naţionale a Cărţii

3. Courts in England and Wales…………………………..…………………

4. Overview of the Legal Professions……….………………………………

5. Judges in the United Kingdom……………………………………………

6. Truth As the Fundamental Principle of the Judicial Pleading……………

8. Kinds of Law: Criminal and Civil………………………………………...

10. Commercial Law…………………………………………………………

11. International Law…………………………………………………………

Term Definition Translation

Law the combination of the rules and principles of conduct promulgated

1. Answer the following questions:

3. Fill in the blank spaces with the missing words:

a) A law is passed in Parliament following a .................... procedure.

a state, legislative body, to adopt, purpose, to regulate, gravity, to abrogate

5. What are the differences between the following words?

law the law amnesty pardon

6. What do you call the laws which:

a) establish the organization of the political powers?

To pass (a) sentence

members, initiated, citizens, war, independence,

TITLE VI - REVISING THE CONSTITUTION

 Laws haven’t changed since primeval times.

Statute - an enactment of a legislative body expressed in a formal

1. Answer the following questions:

1. What are the main sources of law?

2. Join pairs of synonyms:

1. basic a. common law 1

3. Make sentences using the antonyms of the following words:

controversy common law modern

4. How many meanings can you find to these words?

organ guvernamental правительственный

7. Complete the following table with the corresponding verb(s), noun(s) or

Noun Verb Adjective

1 l e g i s l a t i o n 1. The act or process of

a _____________ which we hope other countries will not follow.

written, important, from, laws, rules, documents, courts, to, embodied

The British Constitution is just as ___________ to the British as the US Constitution is to

Suit - a civil proceeding; lawsuit;

Minor offence petty or less serious act of breaking the law

1. Answer the following questions:

3. Find common collocations (sometimes more than one solution is possible):

1. Court of cuJsiet of the nEuaepor

3. Court of pAlpe (amiCriln 4. Court of pAalpe (vCili

5. wCnro Court 6. gHhi Court

b) The United States of America

2. Courts of 3. Court of 4. Court of

The Supreme Court of Justice

iSx Crtous of Apapel

Courts of justice of the first level

A good lawyer is a great liar.

Transaction - something that is transacted, esp. a business deal or

- the instituting or conducting of legal action

1. Answer the following questions:

4. Complete the following sentences with the correct variant ( a, b or c).

5. Study the following table and supply the missing information.

SOLICITOR BARRISTER JUDGE

* lawyer _______________ * counselor _______________

* lawyer _ * counselor _